COLUMBIA-PRESBYTERIAN MEDICAL CENTER NEUROLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF NEW YORK

The official beginning of the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig MDA/ALS Center was in 1987. Though it was 2 decades earlier that caring for ALS patients and research in ALS has been conducted.

In the 70's Lewis P. Rowland, MD began caring for ALS patients and has been for the past 3 decades. Erroneous claims of benefits from new ALS "therapies" made it clear that controlled clinical trials were needed in ALS. When Dr. Rowland became Chair of Neurology at Columbia in 1973, he organized trials of transfer factor (reported in 1979) and plasmapheresis (reported in 1980).

In 1982, Dr. Dale J. Lange became a member of the Neurology faculty at Columbia and he, too, evinced an interest in ALS, including controlled trials. As a result of the activity of Drs. Lange and Rowland, the number of patients seen each year escalated. In the mid-80s, Dr. Lange cooperated with investigators at Baylor University to design a trial of cyclosporine in treating ALS. To coordinate the Columbia effort in that trial, Dr. Lange recruited Tae Sook Kim, RN, MS, who served as Clinical Research Nurse. Together, they established an ALS support group that has served patients and families ever since.

In 1987, there was enough activity to be called a Center and we had the assistance of Mr. George Pollack, Esq. the lawyer for Mrs. Eleanor Gehrig, widow of the noted baseball player. He was also the Executor of her estate. On her behalf, Mr. Pollack gave Columbia the legal right to name the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center.

Within a few months in 1987, the Muscular Dystrophy Association named five MDA/ALS Centers (Columbia, Baylor, Southern California, Wisconsin and Massachusetts General Hospital). Drs. Rowland and Lange were Co-Directors of the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Center at Columbia. A public ceremony dedicated the Center in 1988, with Mr. Pollack in attendance.

In 1988, Ms. Peregrine L. Murphy was completing a residency in Pastoral Care at the hospital and, with Ms. Kim, led the support group for ALS patients. In November 1989, with Dr. Lange, she helped to organize a trial of selegeline and became part of the professional staff. By this time, Ms. Kim had left the Center and Ms. Murphy began to guide the patients though the maze of consultants needed for patient care. She also organized a patient database that served as the basis of studies that would improve the quality of life for patients, with the support of Project Death in America and the Fetzer Institute. In time, the Center gained other financial support from private foundations, biotechnical companies and trials supported by MDA. At this time, additional professionals services were required to support clinical research activities and Mrs. Maura Del Bene, RN was hired as the clinical research nurse to assist Ms. Murphy. Ms. Murphy then left the Center in 1996 to pursue a doctoral degree in cognitive neuroscience and was succeeded by Mrs. Del Bene.

In 1999, Dr. Lange moved to Mt. Sinai Medical Center to become head of the Division of Neuromuscular Disease. Mrs. Del Bene had by then completed her advanced practice degree as a psychiatric nurse practitioner and was designated Co-Director with Dr. Rowland. The Center continued to develop its multidisciplinary care team focused in medical-psychosocial and palliative care of the ALS patient and their family as well as conducting several clinical trials in ALS.

In fall of 1999 Dr. Hiroshi Mitsumoto, a world-renowned expert on ALS, was recruited from the Cleveland Clinic to become Director of the Center.

By that time, the Center was comprehensively caring for more than 300 new patients annually. Investigators at the Center conduct clinical trials and publish 5-10 papers a year on medical aspects of ALS, including end-of-life issues. Dr. Rowland retired as Chair of the Department in 1998 and has remained an active member of the Center, which continues to expand under the direction of Dr. Mitsumoto.

Lewis P. Rowland, MD