New Britain’s Hospital for Special Care has opened within its Neuromuscular Center a clinical trials unit for Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Former Columbia University research Dr. Jinsy A. Andrews has been hired to run the unit that will be Connecticut’s first devoted to researching newer, more effective treatments for the disease formally known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
The disease that impairs victims’ muscular response forced the early retirement in 1939 of Gehrig, the Yankees slugger and then leader in consecutive games played. Gehrig succumbed to the disease two years later.
Established in 2007, the Neuromuscular Center has 150 ALS patients and 700 adult and pediatric patients with muscular dystrophy and other chronic neuromuscular disorders.
The hospital says its ALS clinic is one of only 35 such programs in the nation.
Under Andrews’ direction, the clinic will oversee testing of experimental drug trials for ALS and other neuromuscular illnesses, as well as National Institutes of Health-sponsored clinical research and epidemiology studies.
Andrews is a 2005 graduate of the University of Connecticut/Hartford Hospital Neurology Residency Program. Andrews has a medical degree from Albany Medical College.
