On this episode of Advances in Care, Erin Welsh speaks with Dr. Howard Fine, neuro-oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian and director of the Brain Tumor Center at Weill Cornell Medicine, about his groundbreaking research in glioblastoma. Dr. Fine’s lab is bioengineering cerebral organoids - called mini brains - from human embryonic stem cells through a platform called GLICO, which creates genetically matched, patient-specific brain models using an individual's immune cells and glioma cells. These miniature replicas allow researchers to map how a tumor may progress, and test new, individualized therapeutic approaches, offering a hope for transforming glioblastoma into a manageable disease and improving overall survivorship.

Many women in the US are having children at a later age than in the past, and with that comes an increased occurrence of common conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol that can put them at risk for heart disease while pregnant or afterwards. In fact, cardiovascular disease is now the leading cause of maternal mortality in the US, with pulmonary hypertension and peripartum cardiomyopathy posing significantly high risks. Dr. Jennifer Haythe joins Advances in Care host Erin Welsh to discuss the prevalence of medically complex pregnancies due to heart disease and the pioneering, multi-disciplinary teamwork she is leading through the cardio-obstetrics program at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia to successfully care for these patients.

Chiari malformation is a rare, potentially very serious condition that can easily be misdiagnosed without proper expertise. Untreated, complications like hydrocephalus, CSF leaks, cysts in the spinal cord, and nerve and muscle damage can develop but Dr. Jeffrey Greenfield, a pediatric neurosurgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian, is addressing the unmet need for better management of this disorder through the Chiari CARE program at Weill Cornell Medicine–a multidisciplinary care model involving neurology, pain management, neuropsychology, radiology, and other specialties. This initiative is paving the way towards providing full-spectrum care to patients and furthering research to develop better treatment pathways for the future. Dr. Greenfield joins Erin Welsh on this episode of Advances in Care to discuss the types of Chiari malformation and how NewYork-Presbyterian, an integrated academic hospital, is uniquely positioned to provide transitional care to patients, treating them from childhood through adulthood.

Dr. Jeffrey Port joins Advances in Care host Erin Welsh to discuss advances in thoracic surgery and the unique collaborative care model NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine employs to operate on complex chest tumors. In recent years, new robotic approaches to thoracic surgery have revolutionized the field and currently, NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine is one of only 10 centers nationwide that is performing advanced lung procedures utilizing single port robotic technology, the newest paradigm in minimally invasive surgery. This combination of cutting edge surgical techniques, high case volume, and a multidisciplinary care, is meaningfully expanding treatment options for patients who cannot be treated elsewhere.

Advances in Care host Erin Welsh is joined by Dr. Mirella Mourad, maternal-fetal medicine specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian and co-director of the Preterm Birth Prevention Center at Columbia, to talk about her groundbreaking work in obstetrics and high-risk pregnancy care. Along with her collaborator Dr. Kristin Meyers from Columbia’s School of Engineering, Dr. Mourad has developed a patient-specific “digital twin” of the cervix: an innovative model designed to improve the assessment, diagnosis, and management of preterm birth. This cutting-edge technology enables clinicians to better identify patients at risk, personalize treatment strategies for successful pregnancy outcomes, and advance research in the field of maternal-fetal medicine.

Advances in Care host Erin Welsh is joined by Dr. Cara Agerstrand, director of the Medical ECMO Program at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia, and Dr. Matthew Baldwin, critical care specialist and research lead for Columbia’s Baldwin Lab which focuses on the study of critical illness survivorship. They discuss the strength of NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia’s critical care teams, including how they have established a world-renowned expertise in managing patients on rescue therapies like extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), the most advanced form of cardiopulmonary life support. Their conversation explores how their program treats the sickest respiratory and cardiac failure patients, why expertise in ECMO remains relatively uncommon nationwide, and how utilization has evolved from early pediatric use to post H1N1 and COVID surges. They also explore how the Baldwin Lab leads the field of critical care medicine for research on understanding the biological factors of why some patients fully recover from ICU stays and others do not, as well as physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing for patients.

Advances in Care host Erin Welsh is joined by Dr. Scott Tagawa, medical oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian and director of the Genitourinary Oncology Program at Weill Cornell Medicine, to talk about the latest developments in prostate cancer care. Dr. Tagawa recently led a Phase III randomized trial– called PSMAddition–to assess targeted radioligand therapy in men with hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer, which yielded notable declines in PSA levels and slowed cancer progression by 28%. The use of this therapeutic earlier in treatment as opposed to a last-line defense has the potential to redefine the standard of care and improve outcomes for patients with metastatic prostate cancer.

Advances in Care host Erin Welsh sits down with sports medicine physician and concussion specialist Dr. Thomas Bottiglieri to explore the current landscape of concussion care, limitations in assessment, and how a newly discovered biomarker may be the key to more accurate diagnosis and return-to-play decisions. After Dr. Bottiglieri and his team identified a unique biomarker linked to severe concussion, they developed ProScope: an eyetracking software tool that measures head and neck stability and detects the diagnostic biomarker with more than 80% sensitivity. Now, for the first time, clinicians can objectively diagnose and measure the severity of concussion. ProScope even has the potential to be used directly on the sidelines, giving clinicians a faster, and more accurate way to assess athletes for concussion immediately after injury.

In this year-end episode, the hosts of NewYork-Presbyterian’s Advances in Care and Health Matters podcasts come together to reflect on the most compelling insights from their 2025 conversations with physicians , researchers, and other health experts. From groundbreaking innovations to impactful patient stories, they share their top takeaways from a year of meaningful dialogue in medicine.

This week on Advances in Care, we’re revisiting an episode about innovative treatments for depression. When Dr. Conor Liston first began mapping the brains of people suffering from major depression he noticed something strange. In depressed brains certain networks were expanded and, as a result, had pushed into other networks. This finding made Dr. Liston think that the expanded network could explain why depression presents differently from patient to patient. In this conversation with former Advances in Care host Catherine Price, Dr. Liston explains how his work mapping the brain could be the key to effectively using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to help patients with treatment resistant depression.