Dennis S. Charney, MD, delivers the State of the School address.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai honored eight renowned faculty members who have advanced the fields of cardiology, dermatology, health services, infectious diseases, pediatrics, psychiatry, and rehabilitation medicine during the 31st Annual Convocation Ceremony held Tuesday, September 27. The event marks the beginning of the academic year and features the annual State of the School address.
Peter W. May, Chairman, Boards of Trustees, Mount Sinai Health System, told honorees, their families and friends, faculty, staff, and Mount Sinai benefactors who filled Goldwurm Auditorium: “We celebrate the excellent accomplishments of the Icahn School of Medicine over the past year and honor some of the world’s most innovative physicians and scientists as they reach a remarkable milestone in their careers: a named professorship. We additionally celebrate and thank our visionary donors who understand the importance of our work and who enable the type of disruptive thinking that drives discovery.”
Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, welcomed the guests and said: “We gather to
Dennis S. Charney, MD, center, with Convocation honorees, from left: Samin K. Sharma, MD; Mark G. Lebwohl, MD; Joseph E. Herrera, DO; Karen M. Wilson, MD, MPH; Annapoorna S. Kini, MD; René S. Kahn, MD, PhD; Juan P. Wisnivesky, MD, DrPH; and Benjamin K. Chen, MD, PhD.
appreciate all that we have here—generous donors, a brilliant faculty, dedicated physicians, accomplished researchers—all working toward the common goal of advancing medicine by expanding knowledge and improving care.”
Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System, presided over the ceremony and gave the annual State of the School address.
“We have been on an upward trajectory since we inaugurated our highly successful strategic plan in 2006 and raised $1.5 billion through a capital campaign—and we are going to do it again,” Dr. Charney said, announcing that the Mount Sinai Health System and the School of Medicine will launch a new strategic plan in early 2017. “We are very impressed with the creativity of the ideas we are receiving from our departments, divisions, and institutes, and we expect to have a completed strategic plan for the end of the year to present to the Boards of Trustees so we can move forward with our capital campaign.”
Dr. Charney spotlighted key accomplishments throughout his presentation. “We have more doctors on the New York magazine’s ‘Best Doctors 2016’ list than any other health system in New York City,” he said. “Our National Institutes of Health funding increased by 9 percent in 2015 from nearly $265 million to nearly $290 million in 2016, and among private U.S. medical schools, we are No. 1 in research dollars per principal investigator in 2016, up from No. 2, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.”
Additionally, Dr. Charney noted that:
- The full-time faculty has grown by 78
percent since the creation of the Mount
Sinai Health System in 2013, and continued
growth is expected. - The Department of Medical Education
launched “IcahnBeWell,” a program
dedicated to improving the well-being of
every student by following the six pillars
of wellness: spiritual, emotional, physical,
professional, social, and financial. - Mount Sinai has the largest Graduate Medical
Education program in the United States (146
programs and 2,219 residents and fellows). - A robust Mount Sinai Doctors Faculty
Practice grew 6.8 percent in 2015 and is up
12.5 percent in calendar year 2016 through
July. - The Mount Sinai Health System is ranked
No. 3 by DiversityInc in the 2016 list of top
10 hospitals and health care systems in the
nation for excellence in diversity
management.
Key among many new goals, Dr. Charney said, is continuing the outstanding work of Mount Sinai Innovation Partners and “re-imagining” Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences programs and collaborations “to commercialize science, to take our scientific findings and move them to a new drug, a new device, a new vaccine,” he said. “We want that ethic to start right at the very beginning of a student’s career.”
Dr. Charney told the audience, “This is a very exciting time for Mount Sinai. I thank all of you—our physicians, Boards of Trustees, faculty, and students—for making us do our very best.”
To view the presentation, visit http://icahn.mssm.edu/education/medical/events/convocation
The Convocation Honorees
Benjamin K. Chen, MD, PhD
Irene and Dr. Arthur M. Fishberg
Professor of Medicine
Joseph E. Herrera, DO
Lucy G. Moses Professorship in Rehabilitation Medicine
René S. Kahn, MD, PhD
Esther and Joseph Klingenstein
Professor of Psychiatry
Annapoorna S. Kini, MD
Zena and Michael A. Wiener
Professor of Medicine
Mark G. Lebwohl, MD
Waldman Chair of Dermatology
Samin K. Sharma, MD
Anandi Lal Sharma
Professor of Medicine in Cardiology
Karen M. Wilson, MD, MPH
Debra and Leon Black
Professor in Pediatrics
Juan P. Wisnivesky, MD, DrPH
Drs. Richard and Mortimer Bader
Professor of Medicine