A number of physicians and emergency medical personnel who volunteered on the front lines on Sept. 11, 2001, are also now working in the Gulf region to treat the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

On Sept. 14, 2005, 11 physicians, paramedics and emergency medical technicians from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center's Emergency Medicine Department left for Biloxi, Miss., to provide needed primary care. Their effort is part of Operation Assist, a collaborative project between the hospital, the Children's Health Fund and the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

The NewYork-Presbyterian team is equipped with two ambulances, two EMT SUVs and a hospital-designed, state-of-the-art mobile satellite communications vehicle. News of their humanitarian effort was covered by the New York Daily News, Fox-5 television and WCBS Radio, which interviewed Dr. Herbert Pardes. Dr. Alan Manevitz, who also volunteered at the World Trade Center site and treated victims in Gulfport, Miss., was profiled in a New York Times story, "Remembering 9/11, and Healing Minds in Mississippi." Manevitz also was interviewed by Fox News and CNN about the emotional impact of the disaster on its victims.

A story in Crain's Health Pulse mentioned Weill Medical College as one of several local medical schools accepting medical students displaced by the disaster. Weill Cornell's Graduate School of Medical Sciences also has accepted a displaced Tulane student into its Pharmacology Program for the fall semester. Pardes also was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal about how American's generosity to hurricane victims may affect their regular charitable giving, including hospital philanthropy.