“New York is the center for medicine,’’ says Dr. John Connolly, president and CEO of Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., publisher of America’s Top Doctors, a consumer guide to more than 6,200 top specialists throughout the United States, now in its ninth edition. “There are more teaching hospitals here than anywhere else in the country.’’ Breakthroughs at leading local institutions are turning back the clock, prolonging our vibrant quality of life—and attracting visitors, who come to sip from the city’s fountains of youth..

Fleet Feet, Smooth Brow
“The only part of the body we lose fat in as we age is the bottom of the feet,” says Suzanne Levine, D.P.M., an attending podiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital (100 E. 77th St., 1-212-434-2000). “Now we’re injecting filling agents to pad the feet and prevent pain, and it’s working wonders.” It’s also assuring that her patients, no matter their chronological age, can still kick up their heels. To fill the lines between their eyebrows, as well as to plump up their cheekbones and lips, Daniel Baker, M.D., an attending plastic surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital’s Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Institute (210 E. 64th St., 1-212-605-3788), transplants patients’ own fat and stem cells. “Skin appears healthier and thicker afterward,” says Dr. Baker. “Stem cells are so regenerative, and we are now experimenting to find the part of the fat where they are most concentrated.”

Young Face, Happy Heart, Healthy Baby
“In past generations, face-lifts were done with huge incisions,” says Robert Silich, M.D., F.A.C.S., clinical assistant professor of plastic surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell University Weill Medical College (525 E. 68th St., 1-212-746-5454). “Now we leave the smallest scar and ensure the patient has the shortest postoperative recovery time.”

Less is also more when it comes to nonelective, life-saving procedures at the hospital’s Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute, where a revolutionary new technique makes it possible to replace an aortic valve without open-heart surgery. “It’s still experimental, but I just did the procedure on a woman who went home the next day,” says O. Wayne Isom, M.D., chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, whose patients include David Letterman and Charlie Rose. Great strides in the area of fertility include “new chip technology to look at all 23 chromosomes in embryos,” notes Zev Rosenwaks, M.D., director and physician-in-chief of the Ronald O. Perelman and Claudia Cohen Center for Reproductive Medicine. “We can look for genetic diseases and defects, reduce miscarriages and improve embryo implantation rates.”

Flexible Knees
“When we see patients now, we remark in our notes whether they look older or younger than their actual age,” says Michael Alexiades, M.D., orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery (535 E. 70th St., 1-212-606-1000), the official medical institution for the New York Mets, Giants, Knicks and Nets. Dr. Alexiades is keeping his patients young and physically active by offering partial knee replacement surgery. “We replace only the arthritic or diseased portion. The recovery used to be six weeks to three months. Now patients are walking without a cane and going back to work in two weeks.”

Strong Hips, Sharp Minds
Hip surgery is the focus at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases (301 E. 17th St., 598-6000), where assistant professor Roy I. Davidovitch, M.D., performs hip replacement “from the front instead of the standard back approach, which spares all muscles and tendons,’’ he explains. At the Center for Brain Health at NYU Langone Medical Center (550 First Ave., 263-7300), doctors can now detect the tendency to contract Alzheimer’s disease through PET scans, MRIs and spinal fluid analysis 20 years before the onset of symptoms. At the same time, vaccines are being tested and developed to target amyloid plaques in the brain associated with the disease. “If we know who is likely to develop the disease, we can hopefully remove or prevent these plaques with injections before they build up,’’ says Mony John de Leon, Ed.D., a professor at the center. Ultimately, thanks to modern medical miracles that are turning us all into Peter Pan, men and women may indeed grow up, but we’ll never grow old.

A Pair of Post-Options
In this medical mecca, where can you be coddled and cared for after plastic surgery? Here are two luxurious options.

The caring staff at Four Seasons Hotel (57 E. 57th St., 1-212-758-5700) can send a house car to pick up postsurgical patients at the hospital, greet them curbside with a wheelchair and stock their room with ice, stools for the shower and books. Visits from housekeeping and minibar restocking arrive at the same time, to minimize disturbances. Calls are placed to remind guests to take their medicine and room phones can be programmed with speed dials for those with limited dexterity.

Apart from the mood-elevating effect of staying in a room with a Central Park view at The Ritz Carlton New York, Central Park (50 Central Park So., 1-212-308-9100), a house doctor can assist with prescriptions. The 11th floor has an exclusive lounge with complimentary food and beverages, so guests never even have to enter the elevator. There is also a gym facility, if physical therapy is required.