Wednesday, May 6 in Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia, PA, May 28, 2009 -- A National Advisory Committee has been established for the Victor Centers for Jewish Genetic Diseases which provide comprehensive genetic education, screening and counseling services for 11 genetic diseases. The Victor Center located at Albert Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, PA, serves as the national coordinating office for all three of the Victor Centers. The other centers are located at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, MA, and at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL.

One in five Ashkenazi Jews is a carrier of a mutation for a Jewish genetic disease. The mission of the Victor Centers is to prevent the birth of babies with these diseases through education and screening programs. Some of these diseases are fatal in early childhood, and some result in the need for lifelong medical care. All the conditions are difficult to manage and greatly impair the affected person’s quality of life and the lives of family members.

“With so many experts coming together, we will be able to broaden the Victor Centers’ reach and provide crucial services to many more young adults in communities throughout the country,” says Barry R. Freedman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Albert Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia.

The advisory committee, which recently held its first meeting in Philadelphia, is comprised of a multi-disciplinary team of experts. Their goal is to develop policies to increase access to high-quality, cost-effective genetic services; make recommendations for medical and laboratory standards of care; conduct health promotion and educational outreach, and promote best public health practices through research and evaluation.

The Victor Center for Jewish Genetic Diseases opened in 2002 at Albert Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, and is named for its founder Lois B. Victor, a mother who lost two daughters to a Jewish genetic disease. The Einstein model was so successful that a second center was established in 2005 at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. A third center was launched in 2007, in partnership with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

The following national advisory committee members (see group photo below) bring a wealth of expertise from medical, public health, academic, scientific, and managed care arenas, and include:

Lois B. Victor is a trustee of Albert Einstein Healthcare Network and the Founder of the Victor Centers for Jewish Genetic Diseases in partnership with Albert Einstein Healthcare Network. She is committed in her mission to ensure that Jews of childbearing age are screened and have access to the education and counseling needed to have healthy children. Through her leadership and support, the Victor Centers serve this purpose, raising awareness and offering clinical expertise in the areas of genetic screening and counseling. She is a tireless health advocate who participates in many of the activities of the three Victor Center programs.

Joanne Armstrong, MD, is Senior Medical Director of Aetna’s Women’s Health Programs and Services and advises the company on reimbursement policies regarding genetics. In that role, she is the clinical and strategic lead for genomic medicine-related activities. Dr. Armstrong also serves as Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, a position she has held since 1999. She is board-certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Armstrong is a member of the Board of Directors of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, a group that addresses policy and business issues in genetic medicine.

Janis Biermann, MS, is Senior Vice President of the Education and Health Promotion Department for the March of Dimes. She is responsible for the Prematurity Campaign, the Pregnancy and Newborn Health Education Center and Hispanic outreach. In addition, she oversees product marketing, sales and operations, nursing education, mission marketing, and worksite wellness. Prior to joining the March of Dimes, Ms. Biermann was Administrator of the University of Massachusetts Cancer Center in Worcester, MA. Her career also includes serving as Senior Vice President, Director of Program Services for the national Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in New York City.

Joel Charrow, MD, is a medical geneticist and Director of Genetics, Birth Defects and Metabolism and the Genetics Laboratory at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL. He is Professor of Pediatrics at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. Dr Charrow is board-certified in Pediatrics, Clinical Genetics and Biochemical Genetics. His clinical interests are mainly in the areas of inborn errors of metabolism, neurofibromatosis (genetic disorders that cause tumors to grow along nerves affecting development of bones and skin), and skeletal dysplasias (abnormal bone and cartilage development characterized by short stature). Dr. Charrow is a founding fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics and founded the Jewish Genetic Disorders Program at Children’s Memorial Hospital.

Arnold Cohen, MD, is Chairman of the National Advisory Committee for the Victor Centers. He is Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Ob/Gyn) at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA. Prior to his appointment, he served as Chairman of Einstein’s Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine. His career also includes serving as Director of Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Cohen is board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as Maternal-Fetal Medicine. He trained in Obstetrics/Gynecology and Maternal Fetal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Cohn has been a Professor of Ob/Gyn at Jefferson Medical College and the University of Pennsylvania, and his major academic interest has been in the management of high-risk patients with medical complications of pregnancy.

Louis J. Elsas II, MD, is Professor of Pediatrics and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. He is also Interim Chairman, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine; Medical Genetics in Clinical & Biochemical Genetics; and in Medical Genetics in Clinical Molecular Genetics. He currently holds clinical appointments at Jackson Memorial Hospital and University of Miami Hospitals and Clinics, and is consultant in Medical Genetics to Miami Children’s Hospital. For more than 30 years, Dr. Elsas was Director of the Division of Medical Genetics at Emory University, and for 20 years was Professor of Pediatrics and Biochemistry at Emory. In the 1970s, he initiated the screening for Tay-Sachs disease and held mass screenings in the Atlanta community. He established a Medical Genetics Center at Emory University with laboratory testing, clinical diagnosis and therapy, and genetic counseling for Jewish genetic diseases.

Richard Gladstein is two-time Academy Award® nominated producer for his productions of Finding Neverland and the Cider House Rules. He is also Founder and President of the Los Angeles based motion picture company FilmColony, committed to working with a broad range of filmmakers to tell compelling stories. Mr. Gladstein’s films have received 22 Academy Award® nominations and four wins. His other film credits include Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, The Nanny Diaries, The Bourne Identity, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. Mr. Gladstein is also the Founder and President of the Bloom’s Syndrome Foundation dedicated to funding scientific and medical research in search of a cure or treatment for Bloom’s Syndrome, a Jewish genetic disorder which affects his son Milo.

Marvin Goldberg, PhD, isthe Irving & Irene Bard Professor of Marketing in the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University, where he served as Chairman of the Marketing Department from 2000 to 2006 and as Interim Dean in 1999-2000. Dr. Goldberg has been at Penn State since 1991; prior to that he was a Professor in the faculty of Management at McGill University. He holds a PhD in Marketing from the University of Illinois, an MA in Sociology from Columbia University and a BA from McGill University. Dr. Goldberg’s research has focused on assessing factors contributing to the effectiveness of advertising. Much of his work has involved the study of advertising’s effects on children and adolescents, including tobacco and alcohol advertising.

Kenneth Goodman, PhD, is Co-Director of the University of Miami’s Ethics Programs, including its Business Ethics Program. He is also Founder and Director of the Bioethics Program and its Pan American Bioethics Initiative. These Ethics Programs have recently been designated as a World Health Organization Collaborating Center in Ethics and Global Health Policy, one of only six in the world and the only Center in the United States. Dr. Goodman is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami with appointments in the Department of Philosophy, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, School of Nursing and Health Studies, and Department of Anesthesiology. He chairs Ethics Committees for the American College of Epidemiology and the American Medical Informatics Association, for which he co-founded the Ethical, Legal and Social Issues Working Group.

Gail H. Javitt, JD, MPH, is the Law and Policy Director at the Genetics and Public Policy Center and a Research Scholar in the Berman Institute of Bioethics, both at Johns Hopkins University. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. At the Genetics and Public Policy Center, she has been responsible for developing policy options to guide the development and use of reproductive genetic technologies, and is currently leading an initiative to improve oversight of genetic testing quality. Ms. Javitt has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at both the University of Maryland School of Law where she taught Food and Drug Law and Genetics and Law, and at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health where she co-taught Health Law and Regulation.

Paul Root Wolpe, PhD, is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Bioethics, Raymond Schinazi Distinguished Research Professor of Jewish Bioethics, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Sociology, and the Director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University. Dr. Wolpe also serves as the first Chief of Bioethics for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where he is responsible for formulating policy on bioethical issues and safeguarding research subjects. Dr. Wolpe is Co-Editor of the American Journal of Bioethics, the premier scholarly journal in bioethics, and sits on the editorial boards of over a dozen professional journals in medicine and ethics. He recently moved to Emory from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was on the faculty for over 20 years in the Departments of Psychiatry, Sociology, and Medical Ethics.

Advisory committee members are invited to serve two consecutive two-year terms. Meetings will take place twice a year, including the annual meeting held in Philadelphia.

For more information about the advisory committee or the Victor Centers for Jewish Genetic Diseases, contact Adele Schneider, MD, Medical Director of the Victor Center at Albert Einstein Healthcare Network, at 215-456-8722 or visit www.victorcenters.org .