| This joint symposium was held at the Korean Institute for Science and Technology (KIST) on Nov 6, 2014, bringing several neuroscientists from Stony Brook University to Seoul, Korea to meet with counterparts in the KIST Brain Science Institute. |
| On October 31, 2014 the fifth annual Neurosciences Meeting of the Minds Symposium, entitled "Parkinson's Disease and Deep Brain Stimulation Therapies: Practice and Theory", took place at the Charles B. Wang Center. The symposium was sponsored by Stony Brook's Neurosciences Institute with support from the founding departments, the hospital, and the Hartman Center for Parkinson's Disease Research. The symposium attracted more than 200 physicians, nurses, researchers, students and other healthcare professionals with an interest in the neurosciences. Dr. Ali Rezai, a world-renowned specialist in this field was the keynote speaker, and five Stony Brook investigators also gave seminars in related areas. |
| Guy Schwartz, MD, recently joined the Neurology Department. He is a board-certified neurologist and fellowship-trained movement disorders specialist. Among his many areas of expertise are Parkinson's disease, deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease, atypical Parkinsonian syndromes, essential tremor, dystonia, Huntington's disease, tardive dyskinesia, ataxia, among many other neurological disorders. |
| The Departments of Neurobiology & Behavior, Neurology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Psychology are seeking to recruit an outstanding basic or clinical investigator to develop and be the Director of a new Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders at SUNY Stony Brook. This interdepartmental Center will lie within the University's Neurosciences Institute, and focus on a research mission, while contributing to the care of the many individuals with autism spectrum disorders in Suffolk County. The successful candidate will have a nationally-recognized clinical or bench research program relevant to understanding or treating autism spectrum disorders. The Director will have the opportunity to recruit both existing and several new faculty to the Center, collaborating with appropriate Department Heads. |
| Professor Gabriella Carlson, MD of the Department of Psychiatry was elected to a three year term on the governing council of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. |
| The Department of Neurosurgery hosted a Pediatric Neurosurgery educational symposium entitled "What's New in Pediatric Neurosurgery" on September 10, 2014. The event was open to the public with invitations sent to patients, community and SB physicians, and other healthcare professionals. Our neurosurgical experts presented the latest on surgical techniques and novel devices for the treatment of hydrocephalus, pediatric brain tumors, and brain aneurysms in children to an audience of 110 attendees. The event was moderated by Dr. Raphael Davis, Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, and presentations were made by Dr. Michael Egnor, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery; Dr. David Fiorella, Co-Director of the Cerebrovascular Center; and Dr. David Chesler, a recently hired pediatric neurosurgeon who trained at Johns Hopkins. The lectures were followed by a lively Q and A. Also present was a representative from the Hydrocephalus Association of Long Island to provide support group information to the attendees. |
| Mason Leeman-Markowski, MD, PhD joins both our Comprehensive Stroke Center and Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. A board certified vascular neurologist and clinical neurophysiologist, Dr. Leeman-Markowski joins our team of stroke and epileptology experts. |
| The Brain Network of Excellence pilot grant program will fund 8 collaborative pilot project proposals in its inaugural year totaling $800,000. From Stony Brook University, Drs. Collins, and Matthews (Neurobiology); Dr. Zelinsky (Psychology); Dr. Samara (Computer Science); Dr. Vaska (Biomedical Engineering), and Drs. Benveniste, and Lee (Anesthesiology) were among the investigators who will be working on these funded pilot projects. Projects were selected on the basis of their scientific promise and ability to promote collaboration across different SUNY campuses. |
| The recent purchase of the Apollo system with SBUH Auxiliary funding has shown tremendous initial success in the Neurosurgery Department. It is a low profile irrigation/aspiration system which can be used for the evacuation of intracranial hemorrhage. It offers a cutting-edge procedure for patients where few interventions existed in the past. To date, Neurosurgery has used the Apollo with six patients with four of the cases having exceptionally positive clinical outcomes. The evaluation of its success continues and a number of publications are in development. |
| The Department of Psychiatry is proud to announce that CPEP has been awarded Stony Brook's Star Quality Unit designation for not only the month of May, but for the entire year. The culture change and improved standard of care that has swept through the unit has been recognized by the hospital, as well as on a national level. |
| The Christopher Pendergast ALS Center of Excellence, the only ALS Association-certified center on Long Island, has successfully received recertification as a "Treatment Center of Excellence" by the national association. The ALS Association cited the Center as having the "highest national standards of care in the management of Lou Gehrig's disease." To commemorate this milestone, the association awarded the Center with a $12,500 grant and a plaque marking its designation. |
| The Brain Network of Excellence (BNE) has completed review of the first round of pilot grant proposals, and 8 grants out of 34 were selected for funding totaling $800,000 for one year. The BNE has been directed in its first year by Dr. Dennis Choi (Chairman of Neurology), and was established by the Research Foundation to encourage inter-campus SUNY collaborations in the areas of brain mapping in health and disease. Its aim is to foster successful outside agency grant applications. In addition, $100,000 of BNE money was used to fund 13 out of 72 applications from undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students for summer research in the field of neuroscience at 5 different SUNY campuses with the aim of increasing STEM student neuroscience graduate enrollment. |
| The Department of Neurology hosted an "Epilepsy Gathering" on 5/22/2014. The evening was open to all patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals. Expert epileptologists provided the latest on current treatments for epilepsy and what is on the horizon. Also on site was an epilepsy social worker, a nutritionist and representative from the Epilepsy Foundation to listen and help patients and their families with the challenges of living with epilepsy. |
| The Annual Nursing Neurosciences Conference, incorporating all three clinical departments of the Neurosciences Institute for the first time, was held on 5/15/2014. There were guest lecturers from the departments of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. It was open to all healthcare professionals at SBU and had wonderful attendance. |
| Andrew Goldfine, MD, a board-certified neurorehabilitation neurologist and clinical investigator will be joining the Neurology department in July. As a member of the stroke and cerebrovascular team, Dr. Goldfine brings expertise to Stony Brook in recovery of function after stroke and brain injury, disorders of consciousness (coma, vegetative state, and minimally conscious state), cognitive and behavioral disorders from brain injury and general neurology. His research focus will be in the mechanics and treatments of apathy and depression after stroke and brain injury, as well as disorders of consciousness. |
| Christian Sheline, PhD, has been appointed Administrator for the SUNY Stony Brook Neuroscience Institute (SBNI); he will serve concurrently as Research Associate Professor in Neurology. He has a 25 year background in life science and neuroscience research, and prior to joining Stony Brook worked as Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience at Louisiana State University Health Science Center. He will be responsible for the administrative coordination of the SBNI under the direction of Drs. Dennis Choi, Raphael Davis, Ramin Parsey, and Lorna Role. Dr. Sheline is charged with improving connectivity and collaboration within Stony Brook's neuroscience community, through daily conversations and the development of web-based tools. He will also help represent the Stony Brook community within the NY state-wide SUNY neuroscience effort - the SUNY Brain Network of Excellence. |
| Andrea Kabacinski has assumed the role of Interim Associate Director of Nursing for the Neurosciences service line. Andrea Kabacinski, MS, RN, CCRN, CNRN, NEA-BC has a strong background in neuroscience, critical care nursing, and nursing administration having served as the Nurse Manager for 12S, 13N, and the Cerebrovascular Center since 2002. |
| The 17th annual Ride for Life took place from May 5th to May 17th. Riders and other supporters joined together for a memorable event raising awareness and research dollars for ALS. The 12 day event started in East Hampton and ended in Central Park. |
| The Adult Multiple Sclerosis Comprehensive Care Center, under the direction of Dr. Patricia K. Coyle recently attained and successfully hosted 2 separate Fellowships with neurologists from Latin America. This 4 day comprehensive course has been designed to provide visiting neurologist with the opportunity to expand their MS knowledge and experience the multifaceted care our patient's receive. The course consists of lectures presented by our MS healthcare providers, Dr. Patricia Coyle, Dr. Lauren Krupp, and Patricia Melville NP. Other lectures were provided by Neuro-radiologist Dr. Robert Peyster, Neuro-psychologist Dr. Brian Lebowitz, and Neuro-ophthalmologist Dr. Patrick Sibony, facility tours, and first hand clinical experiences with patients with multiple sclerosis. |
| The Stony Brook University Hospital Auxiliary approved a $48,000 award to purchase a piece of equipment for Neurosurgery which will change the lives of many patients going into the future. Dr. David Fiorella is spearheading a pilot initiative to utilize a system called the Apollo to carry out interventions to reduce the impact of brain hemorrhage in clinical situations where little or no interventions were available in the past. This has the potential to significantly improve the prognosis and quality of life of affected patients. The Department of Neurosurgery and the Hospital are very grateful for the support of the Auxiliary. |
| The Department of Neurosurgery conducted its first surgical procedure at Eastern Long Island Hospital as a collaborative effort to serve patients further east on the North Fork. ELI is very excited with this partnership and the Department of Neurosurgery at SBU was equally pleased by the smooth process and warm welcome by the ELI staff. |
| The Department of Neurosurgery has hired a Pediatric Neurosurgeon, David Chesler, MD, PhD, who will start in August. In addition to brain tumor and general pediatric surgery procedures, he will perform epilepsy surgery which is a new service at Stony Brook for pediatric patients in Suffolk County. |
| The Department of Psychiatry is pleased to announce that LauraAnn Nicoletto-Syrett MS, RN has joined nursing leadership as the new nurse manager for CPEP. The CPEP operations have improved significantly over the past year with the support and leadership of all disciplines and will continue to advance under LauraAnn's guidance. |
| Psychiatry has hired a new Psychiatrist, Constantine Ioannou, MD, who will assume the role of Division Director for the Adult Inpatient Psychiatry Service. He comes to Stony Brook with a strong background and will focus on ensuring a Triple Aim approach to patient care. |
| May is National Brian Tumor Awareness Month, National Stroke Awareness Month and National Mental Health Awareness Month. Let's all remember that our mind matters! Our Neurosciences Institute is focused on developing collaborative relationships with other SUNY institutions across the state to meet our trifold mission, research, education and clinical care, and is playing a key role in developing the Brain Network of Excellence (BNE) in New York. |
| FAST Thinking Could Be Life-Saving During a Stroke. Stony Brook Medicine specialists raise awareness, share important signs and symptoms. |
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