Obstetrics & Gynecology

News and Events

Programs and providers of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine are often the focus of news stories and features appearing in major national media. We invite you to review some stories that typify the breakthrough accomplishments of our remarkable team and highlight the impact our care has had on patient’s lives.

Telehealth Restrictions May Limit Opioid Use Treatment

Televisit for buprenorphine

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers found that restricting telehealth prescriptions for opioid use disorder could keep thousands from accessing buprenorphine, a medication that helps people recover from addiction. The study, published March 3 in JAMA Network Open, warns that requiring in-person visits—as had been proposed by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)—may undo the progress made during the COVID-19 pandemic when telehealth increased access to this life-saving treatment. Previous studies show telehealth buprenorphine prescriptions improve treatment use and reduce overdose rates.

Before the pandemic, federal law required doctors to examine patients in person before prescribing controlled substances. This rule was suspended temporarily in March 2020, allowing doctors to prescribe buprenorphine through online telehealth visits, which made receiving treatment for opioid use disorders easier, especially for those in rural areas or without reliable transportation.

Lowering Bioenergetic Age May Help Fend Off Alzheimer’s

Seniors exercising

A person’s “bioenergetic age”—or how youthfully their cells generate energy—might be a key indicator of whether they’re at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, new research from Weill Cornell Medicine shows. The study, published Feb. 24 in Nature Communications, suggests healthy living can turn back the bioenergetic clock for some people, helping them fend off Alzheimer’s as effectively as a new drug called lecanemab.

“That’s quite big because it means some people can lower their risk without the uncertain side effects of current treatments,” said senior author Dr. Jan Krumsiek, associate professor of physiology and biophysics and computational genomics in the Institute for Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

The study’s first author, Dr. Matthias Arnold, is head of the computational neurobiology team at Helmholtz Munich. This work was a collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Disease Metabolomics Consortium.

New Targets Needed for Vaccine that Blocks Maternal Herpesvirus Transmission

image of a pregnant woman getting a vaccine

A new Weill Cornell Medicine and Oregon Health & Science University co-authored study provides critical insight for the development of a vaccine that can more effectively block the spread of cytomegalovirus, or CMV, across the placenta to babies before they are born.

CMV is one of the most common viruses and most people don’t even know they’ve been infected. However, it carries significant risks to the developing fetus, including lifelong health complications such as hearing loss, developmental delays and neurological impairment. An effective vaccine would help protect babies from future health impacts.

The new study, published March 12 in Science Translational Medicine, finds that CMV lacking a certain viral protein complex – thought to be a critical vaccine target to prevent cross-placental spread – can still be transmitted and cause significant harm to the developing fetus. These results strongly suggest that additional vaccine targets providing superior protection need to be identified and explored.

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