Mar 20, 2017 | Community
Starting fifth from left: Alex Ky-Miyasaka, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery; Sanghyun A. Kim, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery; and David A. Greenwald, MD, Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology); with nurses and staff from The Mount Sinai Hospital’s Endoscopy Center.
The Mount Sinai Endoscopy Center hosted an array of educational activities for Colorectal Awareness Month on Wednesday, March 1. During a health fair at The Mount Sinai Hospital, participants picked up educational literature and giveaways and walked through a 20-foot-long inflatable model of a colon. Provided by the Colon Cancer Challenge Foundation and known as the “Rollin’ Colon,” the model exhibits polyps and other colon cancer symptoms.
Later that day, the Foundation launched a “Protect Your Butt” campaign focused on saving lives through colon cancer awareness, prevention, and translational research. Colon cancer survivors, advocates, and clinicians joined in a celebratory “booty shake” at the event, which was held at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park and co-sponsored by Mount Sinai, Epi proColon, and Bracco Diagnostics Inc.
Mar 20, 2017 | Community
Martial artist Leif Becker visits with patient Myles Lewis and his father, Fredrick Lewis. Mr. Becker breaks boards to symbolize the power of hope over adversity.
In partnership with the nonprofit enCourage Kids Foundation, Leif Becker, a martial artist and motivational speaker, recently met with pediatric patients at the Blau Center for Children’s Cancer and Blood Disease at Kravis Children’s Hospital at Mount Sinai. Mr. Becker holds a world record for breaking wooden boards (487 in one minute). In preparation for his visit, patients and families had decorated wooden boards depicting their personal obstacles or challenges. Mr. Becker shattered the boards to symbolize breaking through barriers.
“The smiling faces as he effortlessly broke the boards were a testament to the power to spread a message of hope over adversity,” says Cheryl F. Strauss, Zone Clinical Coordinator, Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department, Kravis Children’s Hospital. Pediatric patients who were unable to attend the visit shared stories and asked questions from their hospital rooms via a KidZone TV live broadcast.
Mar 20, 2017 | Community
HRH Princess Madeleine, center, with Becky, left, and Reba.
HRH Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Joanna Rubinstein, DDS, PhD, President and CEO of the World Childhood Foundation, USA, recently visited the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center. Led by the Center’s Medical Director, Anne T. Nucci-Sack, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the dignitaries greeted patients, clinicians, and leaders. Two patients, Becky and Reba, shared their personal histories with Princess Madeleine, who works actively with the World Childhood Foundation. The organization was founded in 1999 by her mother, Queen Silvia of Sweden, to help children around the world who are at risk for sexual abuse or exploitation.
Mar 20, 2017 | Community, Featured, Global Health
His back to the camera, Donald M. Kastenbaum, MD, left, with members of his Mount Sinai team and staff at the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University in Yinchuan, performed a knee replacement procedure that was broadcast to more than 1,000 people gathered at the hospital auditorium and four local hospitals.
Donald M. Kastenbaum, MD, has been traveling to China each year for more than 15 years to teach orthopedic surgeons the latest techniques in orthopedic hip and knee surgery. This year, he and his four-person team at Mount Sinai Beth Israel were invited by the Chinese government and the General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, in Yinchuan, a city of nearly 2 million people about 400 miles southwest of Beijing.
Dr. Kastenbaum is Physician-in-Chief and Vice Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. His team included Albert Toe, PA; Matthew Renner, PA; Jin Hee Choi, RN; and Suriya Sriprasertying, RN.
The group’s three-day visit in early February involved a 13-hour flight to Beijing and a two-hour flight to Yinchuan. The next morning, Dr. Kastenbaum began giving the first of multiple lectures—with slides and case studies in English and Chinese—followed by hospital rounds and several total knee replacement surgeries.
“It was an amazing opportunity to share our knowledge with our counterparts in China and allow our team members to learn firsthand about medical practices in another part of the world, all while building the Mount Sinai brand,” says Dr. Kastenbaum, who is also Vice President/Medical Director of Perioperative Services for the Mount Sinai Health System, and is considered an expert in operating room safety and efficiency.
Members of the Mount Sinai orthopedics team at the hospital in Yinchuan: from left, Matthew Renner, PA; Suriya Sriprasertying, RN; Donald M. Kastenbaum, MD; Jin Hee Choi, RN; and Albert Toe, PA.
During the visit, Dr. Kastenbaum was able to put into practice his belief that success in the surgical suite is based not just on his own skills—honed over the course of performing more than 6,000 total hip and knee replacements— but on his team approach. This approach methodically addresses a range of interoperative issues, such as how to set up the operating room, ensure sterility, account for all instruments, and decrease the risk of infection, while focusing on efficiency, not speed. It also recognizes the importance of preoperative planning and postoperative care.
In 2002, Dr. Kastenbaum was first invited to speak and perform live surgery at a major orthopedic conference in China, which spurred his interest in helping to improve medical education internationally. This eventually led him to develop a fellowship program and to become co-chair of the International Congress for Joint Reconstruction (ICJR) Chinese Orthopedic Association meeting, the most widely attended yearly meeting of orthopedic surgeons in China, which attracts nearly 15,000 people.
Over the years, Dr. Kastenbaum’s orthopedic fellowship program has grown to become one of the most sought-after programs for Chinese orthopedic surgeons. Many of his former fellows are now chairs of their own departments or presidents of their hospitals.
“I am very grateful to be in a position to help so many of these doctors from around the world who want to learn about best practices so they can, in turn, help their patients,” he says. “They do so much good for their patients, often with less equipment than we have in the United States. We can also learn more from traditional Chinese medicine, which has tremendous merit.”
Dr. Kastenbaum says he is looking forward to another educational trip with his team next year. “We want to continue and are expanding to other parts of the world because we have only just begun to make a difference in improving surgical outcomes in patients,” he says.
Mar 19, 2017 | Community, Mount Sinai Spotlight
Jeffrey Glassberg
, MD, MA, Associate Director, Mount Sinai Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, talks about a specialized clinic for treating sickle cell disease.
“Very often people with sickle cell disease, especially if they don’t have good access to a sickle cell clinic, will wind up in the emergency department because they’re in excruciating pain. Now that we have this comprehensive program, we’re trying to do things to make sure that patients have what they need so that maybe they don’t come to the emergency department,” he says. “We do infusions in an outpatient setting where people can come in, get some pain medicine….Preventive care costs less, but the patient is still getting better care, living healthier. In New York City, we have the largest sickle cell population of any city in the United States. But in terms of really comprehensive clinics, there aren’t many.”
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Mar 13, 2017 | Community, Mount Sinai Spotlight, Your Health
Terri Wilder, MSW, director, HIV/AIDS Education and Training, and Antonio Urbina, MD, associate professor of infectious disease at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discuss recent advances in HIV/AIDS treatment and the importance of national HIV in Women and Girls Awareness Day. “One in every four person who’s living with HIV in the United States is female. The good news is that we are seeing a decrease in the number of women who are diagnosed with HIV each year. But if doctors can identify HIV early, then we can prevent many of these complications that occur with HIV.”
