Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community
From left: Michelle S. Cespedes, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Lisa Eiland, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, and Director of Newborn Services, Mount Sinai West; and second-year students Monica Amoo-Achampong and Yvonne Okaka.
More than 50 students and faculty members at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai shared a festive meal and built valuable connections recently at the second annual Sinai Women of Color in Medicine and Science dinner. The mentoring event, sponsored by Students for Equal Opportunity in Medicine and the Patricia S. Levinson Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs, was held on Thursday, March 16, at Red Rooster Harlem.
“We look forward to continuing this event as an annual tradition at Mount Sinai. We expect it to grow in size as we work to recruit and retain women of color faculty and students,” says Ann-Gel S. Palermo, DrPH, MPH.
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community
Michael Glenn received a screening from Vincent Carrao, MD, DDS, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Division Chief at The Mount Sinai Hospital.
A record number of participants received free oral, head and neck cancer screenings at The Mount Sinai Hospital (MSH) and Mount Sinai Beth Israel (MSBI) during Oral Cancer Awareness Month in April. The screenings, held on two consecutive days, were sponsored by Mount Sinai’s Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and supported by the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance, for which Mount Sinai serves as the New York Chapter. Physicians and staff screened a total of 323 participants at both hospitals—245 at MSH and 78 at MSBI—and recommended 50 for follow-up care.
Head and neck cancers usually begin in the squamous cells that line the moist, mucosal surfaces inside the mouth, nose, and throat. Cancers also begin in the salivary glands, but less frequently. The National Cancer Institute estimates that 65,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with head and neck cancers in 2017. There is an 80 percent survival rate when these cancers are detected early.
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, School
Plans are underway for the 2017 Program for Post Graduate Trainees (PGME): Future Academic Clinician-Educators, sponsored by the Institute for Medical Education (IME) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Harvard Macy Institute, and the Boston Children’s Hospital.
The program supports residents and fellows on their path to becoming clinician-educator leaders and facilitates skill development in teaching, learning, and medical education scholarship. Applications for the next PGME course are due in June; acceptance is announced in July.
The course is held annually at The MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston, a graduate university of health sciences founded by Massachusetts General Hospital.
“The program allowed me to think about the paths available as a clinician educator and the skills that make pursuing medical education more attainable,” says School of Medicine alumna Laura Stein, MD, PGY-4, Chief Resident for Quality Outcomes. “In addition to offering me concrete ideas for continued medical education projects and scholarship, the weekend allowed me to meet and learn from fellow residents with similar interests and leading experts in the field.”
PGME Course Co-Director, Reena Karani, MD, MHPE, Director, Institute for Medical Education, says the program represents a unique opportunity.
“We need innovative, skilled and committed educators in the future. The PGME course focuses on residents and fellows and is a unique offering targeted and tailored to this next generation of medical education leaders,” Dr. Karani says. “The IME is proud of our trainees who just completed the program. They all have a very bright future ahead of them.”
Last December, 19 house staff members from the Mount Sinai Health System were accepted at the program, with two participants receiving an IME tuition scholarship to attend: Kamron Pourmand, MD, Gastroenterology Fellow, and Jacqueline Paulis, MD, PGY-3S, Emergency Medicine. They will also have an opportunity to present their work at Medical Education Grand Rounds and at Education Research Day.
“The course allowed me to learn and practice a variety of skills that are critical to a successful career in medical education,” says Dr. Pourmand.
Andy Coyle, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Associate Program Director for Ambulatory Care, Internal Medicine Residency Program, at the School of Medicine, says the course has been a wonderful resource for trainees.
“They return from the course equipped to implement valuable and scholarly educational projects, with support and mentorship from fellow participants and Harvard Macy faculty,” he says. “Most importantly, they come back inspired and prepared to excel in clinician-educator career pathways.”
Brijen Shah, MD, Assistant Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Assistant Professor of Medicine, and Chief Medical Officer and Vice President for Medical Affairs at Mount Sinai Queens, says the program is a valuable source of networking, medical education related knowledge, and skill development for rising clinician educators.
“The most striking impact this program has made on learners has been the legitimacy and confidence it provides to early clinician educators who are launching their careers,” he says.
Updated on Jul 6, 2025 | Community
Nicolas Daviaud, PhD, postdoctoral fellow, neuroscience, explained his work to visitor Shauntay Williams.
To commemorate Brain Awareness Week—a global endeavor showcasing the progress and benefits of brain research—The Friedman Brain Institute sponsored its fourth annual “Art of the Brain” exhibition. Featuring photographs, medical illustrations, and sculptures that celebrate the beauty of the brain as seen through the eyes of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai scientists, the exhibition took place at the Grady Alexis Gallery in East Harlem.
The opening reception, held Monday, March 13, was attended by many of the researchers who displayed their work, which they created by using the latest technological advances in imaging and 3D printing to help them gain a deeper understanding of the brain. During the 18-day run, the exhibition drew Mount Sinai faculty and staff, and the public.
The gallery also hosted PS 171 middle school students for several hours of immersive, interactive brain-related activities, in an event organized by The Friedman Brain Institute.
PS 171 middle school students participated in brain-related activities.
Among the students’ scientific adventures was a guided tour of the exhibition by MiNDS volunteers Xin-an Liu, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience; Denise Croote, a first-year PhD student in the neuroscience program; and Eric Rath, a former traumatic brain injury (TBI) patient at Mount Sinai, who is now a TBI and addictions counselor.
Additionally, teaching assistants helped students view their own brain waves through the NeuroSky® MindWave— educational software that uses an electroencephalogram sensor to detect brain activity. Meanwhile, medical illustrators Christopher M. Smith, MA, and Jill K. Gregory, MFA, brought additional pieces of their work and spoke with students about the rewards and challenges of creating beautiful, yet functional, images to accurately illustrate a scientific topic.
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community
From left: Saadia Akhtar, MD, Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Mount Sinai Beth Israel; Vicki Lynn Shanker, MD; Adam I. Levine, MD; and Thomas J. Nasca, MD, MACP, Chief Executive Officer, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
Two physicians at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have received the 2017 Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach Award for fostering innovation in their residency programs.
Vicki Lynn Shanker, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology, and Director of the Mount Sinai Beth Israel Neurology residency program, cultivated a program committed to supporting residents in research and subspecialty care. Adam I. Levine, MD, Professor of Anesthesiology (Perioperative and Pain Medicine), and Director of The Mount Sinai Hospital Anesthesiology residency program, developed a program that allows residents to refine their clinical and teaching skills with simulation. Dr. Shanker and Dr. Levine were among 10 clinical educators receiving the award on Friday, March 10, at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) annual conference in Chicago.
“We are very proud,” says I. Michael Leitman, MD, FACS, Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Icahn School of Medicine. “Their programs have become pioneers in the field.”
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Featured
From left: Barbara Davis, Chief Operating Officer of The Actors Fund; Brian Stokes Mitchell; and Lisa Mazie, Chief Administrative Officer of Mount Sinai West.
Mount Sinai Doctors and The Actors Fund recently opened The Samuel J. Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts, a medical facility in a very “Broadway” location—upstairs from the Actors Fund headquarters at 729 Seventh Avenue and up the street from the Times Square TKTS booths.
The Center is open to the general public, but its services and flexible hours are targeted to people in entertainment and the performing arts. Staffed by Mount Sinai physicians, it offers primary care services, including wellness checkups, urgent sick visits, and health screenings, and is planning to add specialty services in fields like orthopedics and otolaryngology later this year. “This really is a collaboration; it’s like putting on a show,” the actor Brian Stokes Mitchell, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Actors Fund, said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, March 2.
Partly funded by a $1 million donation from the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman New York Foundation for Medical Research, the Center is a project special to the Friedman family, which has deep ties to both medicine and the arts. It is named for the late Samuel J. Friedman, a publicist who worked with performers Bette Davis and Gypsy Rose Lee—and who was the brother of the late Gerald J. Friedman, MD, founder of the Diabetes Institute at Mount Sinai Beth Israel that bears his name.
“Mount Sinai has a long history of providing primary and specialty care for the performing arts community, and we are proud to continue that legacy in our partnership with The Actors Fund,” says Evan L. Flatow, MD, President of Mount Sinai West.
