Community | Mount Sinai Today

Women With Disabilities Experience Barriers to Access and Disparities in Health Care

Updated on Nov 14, 2025 | Community, Engagement, Featured

Arianny Ramirez, right, a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Spinal Cord Injury Program at The Mount Sinai Hospital, demonstrates patient care in a staff training video with physical therapist Alexandra McGivern.

Intersectionality is a crucial consideration as providers treat patients and understand their needs inside and outside health care facilities, said Arianny Ramirez, a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Spinal Cord Injury Program at The Mount Sinai Hospital, who was the featured speaker for a virtual talk hosted by the Office for Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) at Mount Sinai. The session, “Health Care Disparities and Women with Disabilities,” is available here.

The talk was part of the Raising Disability Awareness Virtual Talk Series, launched by ODI in 2020 for Disability Awareness Month, featured speakers from around the Mount Sinai Health System and the community to promote an inclusive and equitable workplace and health care environment for people with disabilities.

Arianny Ramirez

Ms. Ramirez, a woman of color with a physical disability, discussed health care challenges at both a personal level and a population level. She said the health care community must work together to understand the intersection of sexism, racism, and ableism, and its effect on women with disabilities. “The biggest obstacles I face in my life as a woman with a disability are the barriers and limits society places on me,” she said.

After an accidental fall that paralyzed her from the waist down at age 18, Mrs. Ramirez realized that her life and the lives of many others would be easier if the world were designed with disabilities in mind.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 36 million women in the United States have disabilities. This number is expected to continue growing, says Mrs. Ramirez, and “women with disabilities face more difficulty than women without disabilities in accessing health care screenings.” Routine physical exams, mammogram, Pap smears, sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, and eye exams are just a few of the screenings that are more challenging to access for women with disabilities.

Physical and attitudinal barriers often prevent this population from seeking and receiving equitable and appropriate health care. The necessary equipment, machinery, and devices to care for these women are not always present in doctors’ offices, Mrs. Ramirez said of clinical care in the United States.

Additionally, stereotypes and discrimination are often directed toward people with disabilities in health care settings, making them feel uncomfortable and excluded, and there are limited training and guidelines in place to address the specific needs of women with disabilities.

“Let’s start with our physical barriers,” Mrs. Ramirez said. “They consist of a lack of adaptive examination tables and scales, inaccessible testing rooms, and inaccessible diagnostic equipment. Over 90 percent of physicians’ offices do not have wheelchair-accessible scales.”

The Mount Sinai Health System is working to address these disparities with a variety of measures, including a course created by the Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance for Mount Sinai physicians and other providers in fields such as family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and emergency medicine. Mount Sinai employees can register for the course, “Improving Health Care Access for Women with Spinal Cord Injury” on Mount Sinai’s PEAK site.

Mount Sinai’s Spinal Cord Injury Research Center also offers information to the public about support groups, exercise, and clinical trials, including one addressing access for women with spinal cord injuries.

Ultimately, Mrs. Ramirez called for the public to consider the world from a different perspective.

“I invite all of you to just look around your environment. Whether it’s in the office, the structure that you live in, you work in, or your commute, and think ‘what if I did have a disability? What if I did have knee surgery and there wasn’t a lip in the sidewalk that I couldn’t get over or something?’” she said. “Be mindful of the experiences other people are having and remember that a disability can happen to anyone. One can become disabled at any point in your life, and you can be a part of this community in the future as well. If you do your part and advocate for structural change, this can improve the environment around us and open the door for women with disabilities to get the care they need and live their lives.”

Speaking as a woman with a disability and a professional in rehabilitation, Ms. Ramirez called on the health care community to take four measures: Increase professional education, training, and technical assistance so providers understand disability cultural competency; implement new monitoring and accountability laws and practices to increase oversight; use accreditations to ensure health care facilities comply with accessibility guidelines; and create a universal design that can be applied to any facility to care for and welcome people with disabilities uniformly.

“Until ableism becomes a conscious thought in nondisabled people’s minds, only then will true equality be achieved,” she said.

Get more disabilities-related resources from the Mount Sinai Office for Diversity and Inclusion

Mount Sinai West Earns National Accolades for Obstetrical Care

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Featured, Mount Sinai West

Mount Sinai West earned a High Performing rating, the highest rating available, from U.S. News & World Report in the publication’s inaugural assessment of hospitals that provide obstetrical care. Mount Sinai West, along with Mount Sinai Morningside, which are ranked together, are among 237 of 2,700 hospitals in the United States to receive this rating.

To achieve the High Performing rating for maternity care, hospitals had to excel on multiple metrics that are important to families, including complication rates, C-section rates, whether births were scheduled too early in pregnancy, and breast feeding support for new parents.

Mount Sinai West has a culture that prioritizes low-intervention births and shared decision-making between providers and their pregnant patients and has a longstanding tradition of using midwives. Examples of how the hospital puts this into practice include offering nitrous oxide as an alternative pain-control measure to an epidural and wireless monitoring that enables patients to walk around during labor rather than having to stay in bed.

The labor and delivery unit’s providers are also trained in TeamSTEPPS, a teamwork model developed by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to optimize patient outcomes by improving communication among providers.

“We are proud to be included in the inaugural edition of Best Hospitals for Maternity Care,” says Holly Loudon, MD, MPH, Site Chair, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine, Mount Sinai West. “To be recognized on a national level is a tribute to our outstanding team of obstetrical faculty, nursing staff, and support staff and their dedication to quality, safety, and patient experience.”

Learn more about pregnancy and childbirth at Mount Sinai West

HOLA Volunteers at Community Soup Kitchen

Updated on Nov 14, 2025 | Community, Engagement

HOLA volunteers, from left to right: Awanda Canelo, Frank Pabon, Shawn Lee, and Kelley Gonzalez. Photo credit: Angel Marquez

Members of HOLA, the Heritage of LatinX Alliance Employee Resource Group at Mount Sinai Health System, recently partnered with The Father’s Heart Ministries by volunteering at the organization’s soup kitchen and food pantry.

“It was very sad at first seeing the long line of people in the rain two hours before the pantry opened,” said Frank Pabon, Director of Operations/CBO at The Mount Sinai Hospital, who, along with Paul Sanabria, Project Manager, Quality Operations, and Awanda Canelo, a billing coordinator, helped to organize the volunteers. “However, it was so rewarding assisting with the food distribution and knowing that we helped families put food on the table.”

He added, “We were glad that we could help serve so many people. This experience made us especially thankful during the holiday season.”

The Father Heart Ministries offers a variety of programs, such as the soup kitchen and food pantry, tutoring, and job training programs. On the day the HOLA members volunteered, December 9, the food pantry served about 900 people.

Mount Sinai Doctors Medicine Multispecialty Offers Collaborative Care in a New Space at Mount Sinai Morningside

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Featured, Mount Sinai Morningside

Left to right: Javier Zulueta, MD, Rahul Agarwal, MD, and Fernando Carnavali, MD

A new practice specifically addressing the needs of ambulatory patients has opened in the Ambulatory Care Center at Mount Sinai Morningside.

Mount Sinai Doctors Medicine Multispecialty offers a wide range of specialty care that allows an integrative team approach for chronic disease management and several new programs where specialists collaborate on patient care. Many patients benefit from having all of their sub-specialists in one office where physicians work together to improve patients’ health. The practice is located at 440 W. 114 Street, Sixth Floor.

“What’s different here from the way we provided care to our patients in the past is we have experts across many specialties caring for patients all in the same place,” says Arthur A. Gianelli, FACHE, President, Mount Sinai Morningside. “We think this is a wonderful opportunity to provide collaborative care to our patients because we know nothing is simple about getting multiple physicians to coordinate your care.”

He adds, “We can provide care for any stage of life, compassionate care for you and your family, your loved ones, right here in the community.”

There are seven subspecialties in the new practice: Allergy and Immunology, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Diseases/Weight Management, Infectious Diseases, Gastroenterology, Pulmonology, Nephrology, and Rheumatology.

In addition, there are four new programs:

Travel Medicine works with patients on the prevention and management of health problems associated with travel. The physicians at Mount Sinai Morningside are board certified in infectious diseases and experts in destination-specific health risks and preventative measures. These specialists address travelers’ vaccination requirements, and answer questions and make recommendations regarding disease exposure.

Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to manage VTE by working closely and cross referring to colleagues in cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery. The team provides follow-up care to patients who were discharged from the hospital or Emergency Department to determine the cause of VTE, evaluates the duration, risks, and benefits of anticoagulation therapy, and works to avoid the development of Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension as a complication of acute pulmonary embolism.

Lung Nodule(s) is an extension of the Lung Cancer Screening program at Mount Sinai Morningside. It will serve as a referral clinic for all patients who have a lung nodule(s) detected on computed tomography (CT) scans either incidentally or as part of a screening program. Following specific protocols for follow-up and diagnosis of nodules avoids unnecessary invasive procedures while maximizing the diagnosis of lung cancer in its earliest stage when it is most treatable.

Fracture Reduction is a joint effort of Endocrinology and Rheumatology to screen for osteoporosis in individuals over the age of 50 to reduce non-traumatic fractures. A large number of patients hospitalized with hip and other non-traumatic fractures will benefit from biochemical and bone density scan (DXA) evaluation to screen for and treat osteoporosis and reduce the risk of a subsequent fracture and other medical conditions that are caused by or made worse by fractures.

To make an appointment with the Medicine Multispecialty practice, call 212-523-8672.

Watch a video that shows the new space and hear from Mount Sinai Morningside leaders about how the physicians and care team work together to provide excellent patient care and service

Medical Student Michelle Tran, Whose Non-Profit Combats Anti-Asian Hate, Is Featured on NBC Special

Updated on Nov 14, 2025 | Community, Engagement, Featured, School

Michelle Tran and her friend Howard Chen donate a personal safety alarm to a senior in Manhattan’s Chinatown in April 2021.

When Michelle Tran is not pursing her MD/PhD degree with a specialization in cancer immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, she is busy helping Asian Americans protect themselves against hate crimes through Soar Over Hate, the non-profit she created last March.

Soar Over Hate has since raised more than $100,000 and distributed more than 24,000 protective noise-making devices primarily to elderly and vulnerable Asian Americans in New York City and San Francisco—as well as to the Mount Sinai Health System’s essential health care workers who commute to work. Her organization has established a need-based college scholarship fund for local high school students, arranged community health fairs in Manhattan’s Chinatown, and offers free, culturally competent mental-health therapy—either remote or in-person—in several languages, including Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean, to victims of anti-Asian hate crimes.

Mount Sinai medical students volunteered with Soar Over Hate to distribute 1,000 personal safety devices, whistles, and booklets about reporting hate incidents to elderly in Manhattan’s Chinatown in April 2021. In addition to Michelle Tran, student volunteers included: Alyce Kuo, Serena Zheng, Axel Epié, Fred Kwon, Rachel Levantovsky, and Matthew Lin.

Recently, Ms. Tran was among 10 “fearless change makers” who were named 2021 L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth by the popular beauty brand. L’Oréal Paris USA donated $20,000 to Soar Over Hate and, in November, flew Ms. Tran and the nine other Women of Worth award recipients to Paris for a special ceremony. On Thursday, December 16, at 8 pm, the women and their non-profit work will be featured on an NBC special hosted by L’Oréal Paris and including guest appearances by Helen Mirren, Camila Cabello, Gemma Chan, and Eva Longoria. One of this year’s awardees will receive an additional $25,000 for their philanthropy.

“Asian hate, unfortunately, does exist,” says Ms. Tran. “I felt very disheartened by what was going on in my backyard and with the people around me who were being harassed, and attacked, and physically hurt, and I wanted to do something. A colleague of mine was attacked on his way to work and he still avoids the subway. The long-term impact of these incidents leaves a mental scar. So we’re helping to address the healing of the community, and we’re empowering youth with scholarships.”

In the fall, Soar Over Hate provided six low-income high-school seniors in New York City with scholarships of between $500 and $1,000, based on their essays about addressing anti-Asian hate.

Initially, Ms. Tran started her charity as a GoFundMe page with the help of teenager Tiffany Yuen. Ms. Tran is Ms. Yuen’s mentor through the organization, Apex for Youth, which partners Asian American professionals with low-income youth. The money they raised was used to purchase personal safety alarms and whistles for the elderly and supported several community events that featured self-defense classes and health screenings.

Michelle Tran in Chinatown

But Ms. Tran soon realized she could continue to pursue her two “passions” of growing her charity and focusing on her MD/PhD studies by combining efforts with her friend Kenji Jones, who ran a similar Asian American grassroots effort. That is when they developed the current line-up of services for Soar Over Hate. This fall, she was thrilled to learn that she had received a L’Oréal Paris Women of Worth award.

Ms. Tran also credits her mentors at Mount Sinai with providing support for her advocacy work. She works in the lab of Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD, Director of Immunotherapy and Co-Director of Cancer Immunology, who serves as her Principal Investigator. Ms. Tran is a co-President of the Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association at Mount Sinai, supervised by Nolan Kagetsu, MD, Clinical Professor of Radiology, and Ann-Gel Palermo, DrPH, MPH, Senior Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She is also a student representative on Mount Sinai’s Committee on Anti-Asian Bias and Racism, which is led by Amanda J. Rhee, MD, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, and James C. Tsai, MD, MBA, President of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, and Chair of Ophthalmology at the Mount Sinai Health System.

Parking Services Manager Bravely Helps Save a Man From a Burning Car

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Stories of Excellence

John Cruz, left, and Dennis Charney, MD

John Cruz, Senior Manager, Parking Services at The Mount Sinai Hospital, had stopped by the cashier’s booth at the parking garage behind the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai when the attendant received a call that someone was unconscious on the roof. John told the attendant to call Security, and immediately ran up to the roof, where he saw smoke and fire and realized it was coming from a car.

Thankfully, two men were nearby and told John that an unconscious man was in the car, which was locked and filled with smoke. Working together, they broke the car windows and were able to drag the man along a concrete ramp to safety, just before the vehicle was engulfed in flames. John felt for the man’s pulse, and was relieved that there was one. At that point, EMS arrived and began triage.

In November, John was commended by senior leadership at Mount Sinai for his quick thinking and bravery.

“John put himself at risk in order to help a stranger,” said Dennis Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs for the Mount Sinai Health System. “He was afraid, as anyone would have been, but he conquered that fear to perform a heroic feat. We are so fortunate to have him as a member of the Mount Sinai family.”

But John is modest and wants to make sure Andre Rodrigues Silva, an employee of a Mount Sinai vendor, Efficiency Experts, is acknowledged for his efforts (John believes the other man who helped out was a patient, who was headed to or leaving the hospital.)

“I was very scared when I arrived,” John says, “but my instincts kicked in, and I was able to pull the patient out. My heartfelt thanks go to the two gentlemen that were there helping me.”