“Tonight, we celebrate Mount Sinai’s ability to provide the highest-quality health care, educate the next generation of great clinicians and researchers, and generate scientific breakthroughs that advance the capabilities of modern medicine,” Dennis S. Charney, MD, said in his opening remarks.
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mount Sinai Health System Crystal Party tent was up and abuzz in Central Park’s Conservatory Garden. Beneath its rainbow big top, nearly 800 physicians, faculty, staff, trustees, supporters, and friends of the Mount Sinai Health System collected to celebrate the past year’s research and health care advances, achieved under extraordinary conditions. The event, held Thursday, May 4, raised $3 million in support of the Health System.
The 38th annual celebration kicked off with remarks from Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Tonight, we celebrate Mount Sinai’s ability to provide the highest-quality health care, educate the next generation of great clinicians and researchers, and generate scientific breakthroughs that advance the capabilities of modern medicine,” he said.
Dr. Charney made a special effort to highlight some of Mount Sinai’s proudest, current research achievements.
“Our scientists have begun human clinical trials of a diabetes drug they discovered that has the potential to be transformative,” he said. “A drug that can regenerate the pancreatic cells that produce insulin. This could be nothing less than a cure for type 2 diabetes. In recent months, Mount Sinai researchers have also identified an immune cell that helps kill bladder cancer tumors, identified genes strongly linked to autism, and conducted an unprecedented analysis of immune cells in the brain that appear to play a key role in the genetic risk and development of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Turning his attention to the leading patient care enabled by the generosity of Mount Sinai’s donors, Dr. Charney said, “Today, Mount Sinai is serving more patients, with more advanced services than ever before, as we’ve significantly expanded our ambulatory footprint across the five boroughs and Long Island. After performing the world’s first human tracheal transplant, Mount Sinai established the Institute for Airway Sciences to advance new therapies for patients with diseases of the trachea, lung, and sinuses.”
Looking to the future, he shared news of a number of capital improvement projects under consideration, to further enhance patient care.
“The next phase of the expansion and modernization of the Saul Family Emergency Department at The Mount Sinai Hospital will be finished in July. It will include a new acute care zone, an observation unit, and a separate Geriatrics Emergency Department to complement our new Children’s Emergency Department,” he said. “Early next year, we will open new offices at Mount Sinai West for the Bonnie and Tom Strauss Movement Disorders Center and the Nash Family Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics. And our next great project—the Tisch Cancer Hospital—will begin construction next month.”
Dr. Charney thanked the donors in the audience for their partnership and closed by saying, “It is no exaggeration to say that the return on your investment can be measured in diseases cured and lives saved.”
The event included three moving patient stories during a video tribute.
As these moving stories of patient successes came to a close, Richard A. Friedman, Co-Chair of Mount Sinai Health System Boards of Trustees, came to the podium.
“Mount Sinai’s work over the past three years in our hospitals, clinics, classrooms, and labs has burnished their reputation as one of the truly great academic medical centers, not only in this country but in the world,” Richard A. Friedman, Co-Chair of Mount Sinai Health System Boards of Trustees, said in his concluding remarks.
“Three years ago,” he observed, “you would not have found a single soul in this beautiful garden in this area. New York City was in lockdown and the only tents in Central Park were those of Samaritans First, where our doctors were caring for COVID-19 patients for whom there were no hospital beds. That was a moment of crisis when Mount Sinai was busy saving thousands of lives. Tonight, years later, it’s finally time to toast all that the Mount Sinai Health System does for our community and for humanity through the advancement of biomedicine.”
As he concluded, reminding everyone in attendance of the importance of their philanthropy to saving lives, Mr. Friedman stated, “Mount Sinai’s work over the past three years in our hospitals, clinics, classrooms, and labs has burnished their reputation as one of the truly great academic medical centers, not only in this country but in the world. So, my tribute is to all the doctors, the faculty, the researchers, and everyone at Mount Sinai.”