From left: David L. Reich, MD, President and Chief Operating Officer, The Mount Sinai Hospital; 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; Kenneth L. Davis, MD; Madeline Bell, President and Chief Executive Officer, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; and Lisa M. Satlin, MD, Herbert H. Lehman Professor and Chair, Jack and Lucy Clark Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
The Mount Sinai Health System and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) launched the next phase of their 18-month-old alliance on Wednesday, May 31, as they officially opened their Fetal Medicine Program and announced an affiliation of the Mount Sinai Children’s Heart Center with the Cardiac Center at CHOP. The celebration included a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the third floor of the Annenberg Building—the location of the new Fetal Medicine Suite—that was attended by several dozen leaders and staff from both institutions.
The Mount Sinai and CHOP alliance began in the fall of 2015 and includes three areas: fetal medicine, pediatric cardiac care, and pediatric oncology. In all three areas, the collaboration intends to give patients and their families access to the most advanced diagnostics and treatments by Mount Sinai and CHOP specialists at several Mount Sinai locations.
“We are combining our strengths to give children in the New York metropolitan area access to an unprecedented scope of pediatric services,” Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, told the guests.
“CHOP is pleased to mark this milestone in the relationship between two health care institutions that are totally dedicated to caring for the health of children and their families,” Madeline Bell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said. “The alliance continues to evolve and reflects both a shared vision to better serve families in the New York region and a mutual professional respect and admiration between our organizations.”
The Fetal Medicine Program is unique for New York: it allows expectant parents facing a high-risk pregnancy to have a comprehensive fetal diagnosis conducted and then reviewed in full detail with a team of specialists, all in a single day. “By the end of the day, parents will have their questions answered, understand the treatment options, and be equipped to make the best decisions for their families,” said Dr. Davis.
From left: Khanh Nguyen, MD, Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery, and Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Chief, Pediatric Cardiothoracic Surgery, The Mount Sinai Hospital; Joanne Stone, MD, MS; and Peter Pastuszko, MD.
Ultrasound, echocardiography, fetal magnetic resonance imaging, and all diagnostic testing will be performed at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Images will be read by specialists in fetal radiology at CHOP and Mount Sinai in coordination with Mount Sinai maternal-fetal medicine specialists using telemedicine video links. “In effect, we are building a dream team of fetal medicine,” said Joanne Stone, MD, MS, Director, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System, and Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
The new pediatric cardiac care alliance includes the Fetal Heart Program, which aims to diagnose congenital heart disease as early as 12-14 weeks gestation using fetal echocardiography. Specialists at Mount Sinai and CHOP would then jointly develop an optimal plan for care. Additionally, the Children’s Heart Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital, overseen by the divisions of Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, and offering a continuum of care from fetal to adult life, will now have access to the expertise of CHOP’s Cardiac Center in areas such as pediatric cardiac intensive care and pediatric cardiothoracic surgery. The Mount Sinai and CHOP teams are able to provide joint expertise at all points of treatment through direct consultation and use of telehealth technology.
“Every day, we are confronted with new babies who depend upon us for life,” said Peter Pastuszko, MD, Chief, Pediatric Cardiac Surgery and Director of Pediatric Cardiovascular Services, Mount Sinai Health System, and Professor, Cardiovascular Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Today, we are well equipped to handle a congenital heart defect of any complexity.”
The event featured a videoconference with N. Scott Adzick, MD, Surgeon-in-Chief and Director of the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and Professor of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the CHOP team.