NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has a distinguished track record for liver transplantation and features a team of world renowned leaders in the field. The Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation offers a seamless integration of medical, surgical, radiological, and support services — using both deceased and living donor liver tissue, and minimally invasive laparoscopic techniques whenever possible.
Founded in 1998, the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center is one of the first liver programs built from its inception as a multidisciplinary unit. As of July 2011, the Center had performed more than 1,400 liver transplants, including over 200 living donor transplants. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center’s strong hepatobiliary program was bolstered by the addition of adult liver transplantation to its services in 2010.
Together these programs provide compassionate, individualized care to a wide variety of patients, combining exceptional care with the most innovative approaches for expanding access to liver transplantation to reduce the mortality of patients on the waiting list.
Alyson Fox, MD, NewYork-Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center
Alyson Fox, MD
Dr. Alyson Fox earned her BA in Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University prior to attending the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at NY Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she served as assistant chief resident. She completed her Gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. While at Penn, she completed a Masters in Clinical Epidemiology and served as chief fellow. She completed her advanced fellowship training in Advanced Transplant Hepatology at the University of California, San Francisco and was named clinical fellow of the year by the department of medicine.
Dr. Fox’s clinical practice is focused on the management of patients with a variety of liver diseases including viral hepatitis, alcoholic and non alcoholic fatty liver diseases, inherited liver diseases and liver cancers. As a transplant hepatologist, she has advanced training in the management of end stage liver disease and caring for patients both pre and post liver transplantation. Her research area is focused on issues related to organ allocation and complications of portal hypertension.
Elizabeth Verna, MD, NewYork-Presbyterian/ Columbia University Medical Center
Elizabeth Verna, MD
Dr. Elizabeth Verna, Assistant Professor of Medicine, earned her BA in Biology at the University of Virginia prior to attending the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons for medical school. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and then served as a Chief Resident before remaining at Columbia for Gastroenterology and Advanced/Transplant Hepatology fellowships.
While in fellowship, she also completed a Masters in Biostatistics at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Dr. Verna’s clinical practice includes the management of patients with a variety of liver diseases with a focus on viral hepatitis and liver transplantation as well as the new emerging therapies for hepatitis C. She treats patients with liver cancer, alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and metabolic liver diseases and has expertise in the management of end stage liver disease. She has an active research program with grant support for the study of hepatitis C in liver transplant recipients and will be actively involved in clinical trials for the treatment of hepatitis C in both the transplant and non-transplant settings.
Julia Wattacheril, MD, NewYork-Presbyterian/ Columbia University Medical Center
Julia Wattacheril, MD
Dr. Julia Wattacheril graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, obtained her MD with high honors from Baylor College of Medicine, did her internal medicine training at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and pursued her fellowship in gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition as well as her Masters in Public Health at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She joined us last year for her training in transplant hepatology while maintaining an adjunct faculty appointment at Vanderbilt.
Her clinical interests include all aspects of transplant hepatology, general hepatology and gastroenterology with emphasis on metabolic liver disease and obesity. She specializes in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease as well as all forms of hepatitis, chronic liver disease, and liver cancer in addition to liver transplantation. Her research interests focus on hepatic steatosis, insulin resistance and metabolic liver disease in adults. Her current grant concentrates on the proteins and lipids that signal the transition from steatosis to steatohepatitis.
