Kenneth L. Davis, MD, at Commencement: A Career of Driving Change

Kenneth L. Davis, MD, Executive Vice Chairman of the Mount Sinai Health System Boards of Trustees, giving the Commencement address

A career in medicine or research can be much more than just a doctor healing a patient, or a scientist generating new discoveries. Every individual graduating from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has the potential to drive change and fix a broken health system, said Kenneth L. Davis, MD, Executive Vice Chairman of the Mount Sinai Health System Boards of Trustees, speaking at the school’s 55th Commencement, held at the David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center on Friday, May 10.

As the outgoing students discussed their experiences during their time at medical and graduate school, and their dreams of their futures, Dr. Davis highlighted how the graduates can improve health care, drawing on a lifetime’s experience at Mount Sinai, beginning at the medical school and including 20 years’ service as Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. In recognition of his contributions, he received a Doctor of Humane Letters from Icahn Mount Sinai.

“Class of 2024, 51 years ago, I was sitting in your seat, as a graduate of the class of 1973,” said Dr. Davis. “At that time, I couldn’t wait to get up and get moving with my career. Nowadays, I’m glad to take a seat whenever I can.”

The torch Dr. Davis was passing was this: health care in the United States is not serving those who need it the most—many barred by income, race, language, citizenship, and insurance. And as a new generation entering the field, Icahn Mount Sinai’s graduates can—and should—strive to close those gaps. Here’s a look at the themes Dr. Davis brought up in his speech, which reflect his career-long efforts to improve the U.S. health care system.

Restoring Social Safety Nets

The United States pays some of the highest costs—if not the highest—for health care compared to other nations around the world, yet health outcomes remain inadequate. Medical expenditures add up to 17 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, compared with an average of nine percent for other advanced economies. Despite that spending, among large wealthy nations, the United States has the lowest life expectancy, said Dr. Davis.

The answer, he said, is restoring the social safety net, and addressing social determinants of health. “Inequity runs deep in U.S. health care. Communities of color have higher levels of serious disease, higher rates of infant mortality, and shorter lifespans than other Americans,” Dr. Davis said.

Increasing spending on social programs is not just about reducing crime or increasing productivity, but also has an effect on lowering federal health care costs, Dr. Davis said, a theme he raised in an Op-Ed for The New York Times.

Similarly, more funding is needed for Medicaid to help provide care for low-income Americans. Its underfunding has led to inadequate access and has left health systems under-reimbursed, he said, pointing out that health systems like Mount Sinai lose 35 cents on every dollar spent to take care of Medicaid patients.

High Cost of Drugs

Americans pay three times what citizens of other wealthy nations pay for pharmaceuticals, said Dr. Davis. “Why do we have to subsidize the cost of drugs for the rest of the world?”

The United States is the source of virtually all pharmaceutical companies’ profits, and that needs to change, he said, adding that the United States’ trading partners need to pay their fair share for pharmaceuticals.

One way to achieve that is increasing the ability of the government to purchase drugs and negotiate prices, and another is including drug prices in trade talks, points Dr. Davis previously raised in Becker’s Hospital Review. “In trade negotiations with other countries, our country must request foreign governments raise their drug prices and then tell pharmaceutical companies not to just put this money in their pockets, but pass the savings on to Americans.”

Making Insurance Work

Fighting denials from insurance companies, paying outrageous prices for needed medications because they might not be covered, or traveling long distances and waiting months to see an in-network specialist are signs that the current insurance system isn’t working, said Dr. Davis.

“Denial of care is not an ethical business model,” he said. “That has to change.”

As graduates of Icahn Mount Sinai, the audience will be more than doctors who heal patients, and more than researchers who generate innovative science, said Dr. Davis. “Whether you’re at a dinner party or community meeting, testifying before a state legislature or a Congressional committee, engaged in a political campaign or leading a major health care organization, I want you to raise your voice and speak out.”

As CEO of the Mount Sinai Health System, Dr. Davis was known for his role in what has been characterized as one of the largest financial turnarounds in academic medicine—forming one of the largest nonprofit systems in the country through the combination of the Mount Sinai Medical Center and Continuum Health Partners. The Health System in 2022 generated $11 billion in revenue and comprised 48,000 employees, eight hospitals, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing, and more than 410 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester County, Long Island, and Florida.

In addition to the honorary degree conferred at Commencement, Dr. Davis’s achievements were celebrated at the 39th annual Crystal Party, held Tuesday, May 21. Here’s a look at his career, and how it all started at Mount Sinai.

Before becoming an executive, Dr. Davis was also known for his contributions to research and psychiatry, particularly in Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. Here’s a look at some of his research milestones:

• Discovering the links of acetylcholine to Alzheimer’s disease, and the benefits of using cholinesterase inhibitors such as physostigmine in patients with Alzheimer’s disease, in the 1980s.
• Designed the original Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 1984. The cognitive measure is used as a primary measure for Alzheimer’s disease clinical trials in the United States even today, either in its original or modified form.
• Key roles in proof-of-concept studies and clinical trials that led to the approval of four of the first five compounds for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
• Beginning in the late 1980s and through the 1990s, key studies that identified dopamine dysregulation in schizophrenia, and dopamine as a drug target for schizophrenia.
• The creation of a brain bank for postmortem studies in schizophrenia, leading to findings that schizophrenia is not characterized by classical, histologically identifiable neuropathology, and that chemical markers that are altered in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia were also abnormal in schizophrenia: choline acetyltransferase, catecholamines and indolamines, neuropeptides, and synaptic proteins.
• Elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine in 2001 for his contributions to neuroscience and brain disorders, and his leadership led to him being awarded the Yale University George H.W. Bush Lifetime of Leadership Award in 2009.