MILSTEIN–Irma. Irma Cameron Milstein, aged 95, of New York City and Scarsdale, passed away peacefully in her sleep, surrounded by loved ones. Irma was a devoted daughter to her parents, the late Harry and Sadelle Cameron. She was a loving wife to the late Paul Milstein to whom she was happily married for 63 years. She was adored by her loving children (Roslyn and Jerry Meyer, Howard and Abby Milstein, Barbara and David Zalaznick, and Edward Milstein and the late Robin Rapoport Milstein), grandchildren (Rebecca Meyer and Jeff Resnik, Michael Meyer, Jamie Meyer, Michael Milstein, Jeffrey and Ali Zalaznick, Samantha Zalaznick, Amy and Tim Sommers, Andrew and Carly Milstein, Lexi and Michael Feldstein, Benjamin Milstein, Elizabeth and Jeremy Orlian) and great-grandchildren (Lucy and Forest Meyer-Resnik, Poppy, Leo, and Zoey Zalaznick, Bella and Sadie Milstein). Irma is also survived by her dear sister Phyllis Edelman and her brother-in-law Jerome Edelman. Irma was born in Brooklyn, where she went to public high school, and earned an undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College, Phi Beta Kappa, where she majored in languages. She was fluent in French and Spanish. She met the love of her life, Paul Milstein, through a family connection, and theirs was a long, great and joyously happy marriage. She was a true partner to Paul in business and at home and they traveled and discovered the world together. Irma valued family above all else and was an involved and devoted daughter, wife, mother, sister, aunt, niece and cousin. Her extended family returned that love and devotion. For her children, Irma instilled a love, appreciation and respect for each other and the importance of giving and making a difference in others’ lives. Irma loved life and lived it with zest. She was a very happy person by nature and she infused that joy and enthusiasm into everything she did. She was quick to laugh and brought sunshine wherever she went. She was brilliant, elegant, capable, and decisive. A lifetime of playing cards and scrabble with friends and family — and teaching the same across generations — created special memories of spirited and sophisticated play, fun, and wonderful conversations. Irma was generous and caring, gave thoughtfully and creatively, and was personally involved in the details of initiatives close to her heart. She was especially focused on gifts that furthered and broadened access to science, education and learning, and medicine. Irma was passionate about the American Museum of Natural History, where she was a dedicated and involved Trustee for many years. She was particularly proud of several initiatives, including the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, which featured the modernization and refurbishment of its legendary “Whale Room.” In addition, she led the creation of an innovative program to bring the museum to children throughout the city with the mobile museums vans and created the Milstein Science Series to introduce young children and their families to the awe and wonders of science, and funded the exciting renovation of the Milstein Hall of Advanced Mammals, which was dedicated to all the children of New York City. She served on the Board of the Jewish Theological Seminary, creating the Milstein Center for Interreligious Dialogue as well as the development of a new High Holy Day prayer book, which has been adopted in synagogues nationally, known as the Milstein Mahzor. Irma served on the Board of Hadassah and became a Life Member. She funded a ground-breaking new Milstein Heart Center at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, which was dedicated in 2018. A generous benefactor to Bank Street College of Education, Irma was awarded an honorary doctorate degree. She loved the New York Public Library, where she and Paul endowed the Milstein Division of US History, Local History, and Genealogy. Other organizations that Irma supported included the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the American Jewish Committee, Jewish Agency for Services for the Aged (JASA), the Jewish Museum, and UJA-Federation. Irma’s family will be forever grateful to Juan Acosta, who gave Irma extraordinary and loving care in her final years. Gifts in memory of Irma Milstein may be made to the American Museum of Natural History or Hadassah.

Published in New York Times on Mar. 16, 2021.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=irma-milstein&pid=198052814

Hadassah Ein Kerem doubles ability to treat heart patients with new state-of-the-art Irma and Paul Milstein Heart Center in Jerusalem.

[-] click image to view video

Ribbon-cutting with Abby and Howard Milstein.

[-] click to enlarge

In the presence of Deputy Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman, National President of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America Ellen Hershkin, Director General of Hadassah Hospital Prof Zeev Rotstein, Howard Milstein inaugurated the Irma and Paul Milstein Heart Center in Hadassah Ein Kerem, Jerusalem in honor of his parents.

The new center occupies the entire third floor, 4500 square meters, of the Sarah Wetsman Davidson Hospital Tower. It makes use of the world’s most sophisticated medical technology and more than doubles the department’s previous capacity to treat heart patients. This includes 11 intensive care private rooms plus 11 post-catherization beds and another 32 beds in the cardiac ward.

Irma Milstein is a member of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. She and her late husband Paul, from New York, earmarked their ten million dollar donation for the heart center.

Howard Milstein, an American entrepreneur and real estate developer and his wife Abby Milstein attended the dedication ceremony, with a large delegation of American Hadassah supporters and Israeli health leaders.

Prof. Chaim Lotan, Director of the Heart Institute at Hadassah Medical Organization, said: “The new center, located in the Sarah Wetsman Davidson Hospital Tower and spread over 4,500 square meters, catapults us fifty years ahead. Several decades ago we established the most advanced cardiac intensive care unit in Israel; this new Heart Center covers more than four times the space of our previous department. Now, we will be able to treat more patients. The Heart Center includes four of the most advanced catheterization labs in the world and another two more catheterization labs are planned. An additional catheterization lab will operate at Hadassah Mount Scopus to prevent the need to transfer patients to Ein Kerem.”

A direct pathway brings patients with heart attacks to the catheterization labs without the need for processing through the emergency room.

Giant high resolution screens connected to the imaging equipment display all of the patient’s vital data at once.

The catheterization labs include one room that operates a bi-plane system providing three-dimensional imaging of the heart from two cameras at the same time.

Said Lotan, “Our experts use these imagines in real time for maximum accuracy. In a hybrid room, we can switch from catheterization to open heart surgery if necessary without moving the patient and losing valuable time. The 2019 dual-camera system is among the first installed in the world. There are inner-aortal cameras and numerous other technological advances that were considered science fiction not long ago. “

Complementing the technological advances are new and spacious conditions, comfortable for patients and their families. In addition to monitors, doctors and nurses will be able to see patients through a closed-circuit video system.

Irma and Paul Milstein, whose generous contribution enabled the establishment of the center, have long contributed to health and medicine. In addition, the family supports education, the arts and scientific research in New York and in countries abroad, including the Milstein Building at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. The Milsteins value the combination of research and treatment that is the hallmark of Hadassah Medical Organization.

Ellen Hershkin, President of the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America, said: “We are proud and excited to open the Heart Center in Honor of Irma and Paul Milstein, the most advanced cardiac center in Israel. Irma Milstein, a dedicated member of Hadassah Women, personally chose to support and advance cardiology. Irma knows that by improving the medical methods and facilities, the excellent physicians at Hadassah will continue to improve research and treatment in the field. We are eternally grateful for their commitment and dedication to the field of heart treatment at Hadassah.”

Janice Weinman, CEO of Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America, presided over the dedication and noted that, “The center brings sophisticated technology , and for the first time, enough room to teach heart professionals from around the world who have asked to learn from Hadassah’s cadre of experts and innovators.”

Howard Milstein said at the event: “My father, Paul, Of Blessed Memory, and my mother, Irma, saw Hadassah’s mission statement as the highest expression of the founding ideals of the State of Israel: to forge ‘links between patients of all nationalities, races and religion who come to its doors for healing.’ Here at Hadassah, all patients – Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druse, secular and religious – receive dignified care from a top flight team of equally diverse medical workers. As such, Hadassah is also a bridge to peace. If you need proof of that, look no further than the Syrian children who, in the midst of a horrific humanitarian crisis, have been brought to Hadassah for treatment of congenital heart defects. The Milstein family resonates with that. We, too, are engaged in supporting a multi-faith effort to alleviate the Syrian crisis.

“We couldn’t be more proud of what you’ve done here. On behalf of Abby, Michael, my parents, and the entire Milstein family, thank you for honoring us in this way. May you continue to go from strength to strength.”

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/253268

Additional link:
Heartfelt donation brings a cutting-edge cardiac center to Jerusalem
https://www.timesofisrael.com/heartfelt-donation-brings-a-cutting-edge-cardiac-center-to-jerusalem/

Text of Howard P. Milstein’s Remarks at the Dedication of the Milstein Heart Center, 10/12/18
https://www.howardandabbymilsteinfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/speech-hadassah-hospital-dedication-of-milstein-heart-center-10-18-18.pdf

Researchers at The Rockefeller University have developed an automated technology that combines imaging with digital analysis and machine learning to help physicians detect melanoma at its early stages. This work was supported by the Paul and Irma Milstein Family Foundation, with additional support from American Skin Association, whose chairman is Howard P. Milstein, and the National Institutes of Health.

Even experts can be fooled by melanoma. People with this type of skin cancer often have mole-looking growths on their skin that tend to be irregular in shape and color, and can be hard to tell apart from benign ones, making the disease difficult to diagnose. “There is a real need for standardization across the field of dermatology in how melanomas are evaluated,” says James Krueger, D. Martin Carter Professor in Clinical Investigation and head of the Laboratory of Investigative Dermatology. “Detection through screening saves lives but is very challenging visually, and even when a suspicious lesion is extracted and biopsied, it is confirmed to be melanoma in only about 10 percent of cases.”

In the new approach, images of lesions are processed by a series of computer programs that extract information about the number of colors present in a growth, and other quantitative data. The analysis generates an overall risk score, called a Q-score, which indicates the likelihood that the growth is cancerous.

Published in Experimental Dermatology, a recent study evaluating the tool’s usefulness indicates that the Q-score yields 98 percent sensitivity, meaning it is very likely to correctly identify early melanomas on the skin. The ability of the test to correctly diagnose normal moles was 36 percent, approaching the levels achieved by expert dermatologists performing visual examinations of suspect moles under the microscope.

“The success of the Q-score in predicting melanoma is a marked improvement over competing technologies,” says Daniel Gareau, first author of the report and instructor in clinical investigation in the Krueger laboratory.

The researchers developed this tool by feeding 60 photos of cancerous melanomas and an equivalent batch of pictures of benign growths into image processing programs. They developed imaging biomarkers to precisely quantify visual features of the growths.

As previous studies have shown, the number of colors in a lesion turned out to be the most significant biomarker for determining malignancy. And some biomarkers were significant only if looked at in specific color channels—a finding the researchers say could potentially be exploited to identify additional biomarkers and further improve accuracy.

“I think this technology could help detect the disease earlier, which could save lives, and avoid unnecessary biopsies too,” says Gareau. “Our next steps are to evaluate this method in larger studies, and take a closer look at how we can use specific color wavelengths to reveal aspects of the lesions that may be invisible to the human eye, but could still be useful in diagnosis.”

SOURCE: Rockefeller University