Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced that late yesterday the Senate Appropriations Committee approved $100,000 for the Academy for Medical Development and Collaboration (AMDeC) Foundation to build an e-health infrastructure database aimed to combat diseases and improve health care treatment options for New York City’s underserved minority communities. Senator Gillibrand aggressively lobbied members of the Appropriations Committee to include funding for the project in the FY10 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill.
“We can’t afford to wait any longer to improve quality health care for New Yorkers. This federal investment will help AMDeC advance medical breakthroughs and eliminate health disparities in communities throughout New York City,” Senator Gillibrand said.
AMDeC, an organization which works with world-renowned scientists, collaborates with 28 medical research institutions throughout New York State in an effort to treat diseases and improve health care treatment options.
Federal funding will help launch InTraGen, a project designed to build a unique e-health database. The 12,000 samples taken from a diverse racial and ethnic pool will target disease origins at the molecular level and will allow doctors in underserved minority areas to tailor to their patients’ clinical care.
Aimed to lay the groundwork for medical breakthroughs, New York research labs partnering with this project include Columbia University, Cornell University – Ithaca, Rockefeller University, Memorial Sloan Kettering, University of Buffalo, Rochester University, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, SUNY Upstate, and North Shore – Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System.
Late yesterday, the Appropriations Bill for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education passed the full committee. The legislation will now head to the floor for a vote before the full Senate. The bill will then proceed to the House-Senate Conference Committee, before final passage in both chambers, and sent to the President to become law.