Connie Milstein at Opening of New Heart Center

Already well known for its excellent medical facility, the prestigious New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center has opened the Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center. This incredible, cutting-edge facility will help NY Presbyterian remain one of the leading facilities for cardiac care in the country; rated among the top ten in the United States by U.S. News and World Report, and the number one hospital for cardiac care in New York. NY Presbyterian has one of the lowest mortality rates for patients who have been diagnosed with heart failure or with heart attacks. The hospital also does more heart transplants than any other in the United States.

Connie Milstein represented her family at the opening ceremony for the new, six story, 142,000 square foot building, for which they donated $50 million of the $260 million needed for construction or the building and outfitting it in the most technologically advanced and environmentally friendly way possible.

Charitable Support from Connie’s Bakery & General Store

Certainly, if you’ve ever been to Connie’s Bakery & General Store, owned by Connie Milstein, then you know that you can find delicious food and baked goods. What you might not know is that 100% of the after-tax profits go to 6 charitable organizations that Connie selects each year. These organizations receive Connie Milstein’s financial support, and are also promoted at the store and on the website. Three of the organizations to receive Connie’s Bakery & General Store support at the moment include:

The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley – This non-for-profit organization collects large donations of unmarketable but still edible food and distributes it to nearly 370 member agencies in six counties in the Hudson Valley.

Visiting Nurse Association of Hudson Valley – This not-for-profit organization provides home health care in the Westchester Community to those who need services, regardless of their ability to pay.

Veteran’s Hospital of Castle Point – This hospital in New York offers a large array of services to veterans who have served their country.

New Heart Center Offers “State-of-the-Art Care”

The latest addition to excellent health care in New York City has opened its doors as of February 1st, 2010. The Vivian and Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center will begin offering cutting-edge cardiac care within the New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center’s prestigious walls. Designed by the internationally renowned architectural firm of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners in conjunction with daSilva Architects, this 260 million dollar, 142,000 square foot, 6 floor facility will be able to give the best care possible to cardiac patients and others with related conditions.

Fifty million dollars of the cost was donated by the Milstein Family, which has a long history of service and support for the hospital. Connie Milstein, daughter of Seymour and Vivian, has been actively involved on several committees at the medical center, including the Quality and Performance Improvement Committee. The donation represents one of the largest single donations in New York Presbyterian Hospital’s history, and will go far to create one of the most outstanding cardiac facilities in the country, and even the world.

Connie Milstein: TOP is Tops at Medical Missions for Children

One of the outstanding features of the Medical Missions for Children organization is the Telemedicine Outreach Program, (TOP.) The main mission of TOP is to help children who are seriously ill, who are having trouble getting a correct diagnosis. Without an accurate assessment of what is wrong, it is impossible to embark on the right course of treatment, and even worse, incorrect treatment could cause even more damage. Unfortunately, as much as one third of diagnoses in the developing world have been shown to be incorrect. MMC and TOP hope to correct this problem through telemedicine.

Since there is a severe shortage of expert medical care in many underserved communities around the world, the mission of TOP is to supply the expertise of physicians who are located in the developed world to people in communities without access to this high level of medical care. This is achieved via hi-tech telecommunications technology.

TOP and MMC presently runs a network of 27 level-one mentoring hospitals in the U.S. and Europe participating in TOP. Because TOP enjoys a partnership with the World Bank, TOP has a presence in over 100 countries all over the globe.

Milstein Founder and Member of Medical Missions for Children

Connie Milstein is a founding member and is on the board of trustees of the international organization Medical Missions for Children. The goal of MMC is to “transfer medical knowledge from those who have it to those who need it” using the most up-to-date communications technologies.

Our civilization is in the midst of a medical revolution where new breakthroughs and discoveries are happening at a pace never before seen in history. MMC believes that this knowledge should be spread as rapidly as it is discovered. MMC is therefore constantly seeking ways to transfer this knowledge from the place it is developed to the “front lines of medicine.”

By helping to facilitate this transfer of knowledge, Connie Milstein and the MMC organization hope to improve the health of millions of people each year.