Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community
Discussion participants, from left: Dan Diamond; the Honorable Louis W. Sullivan, MD; and Prabhjot Singh, MD, PhD
“Strong science crosses all borders, and our leaders need to understand that further investment in health offers great returns.” That message from the Honorable Louis W. Sullivan, MD, former Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George H. W. Bush and Founding Dean and President of the Morehouse School of Medicine, was enthusiastically received recently by a standing-room audience of more than 200 students, faculty, and visitors at Goldwurm Auditorium when Dr. Sullivan was invited to speak at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Sullivan was hosted by The Arnhold Institute for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine and participated in a discussion about the nation’s health policies with the Institute’s Director Prabhjot Singh, MD, PhD, that was moderated by Dan Diamond of the online news site POLITICO Pulse. The event took place shortly after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, Dean for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, gave the introductory remarks.
Feb 6, 2017 | Community, Featured, Seaver Autism Center
As part of an outreach program created by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment, children with autism have an opportunity to visit the American Museum of Natural History.
One Saturday morning each month, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City opens its doors an hour early to welcome a special group of visitors: children with autism and their families. What they experience is more than a simple stroll through the museum’s labyrinthine exhibition halls. Specialists at the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have taught museum tour guides and volunteers how to engage and interact with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The Seaver Autism Center has also developed social stories, visual cues, and prompt cards for these visits and has chosen to tour specific halls (Dinosaurs, North American Mammals, Planet Earth, and Ocean Life) based on their ability to meet the children’s sensory needs.
The three-year-old program has been “hugely successful,” says Michelle Gorenstein-Holtzman, PsyD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Health System and Director of Community Outreach for the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment. Specialized tours of the museum are continually booked, and exhibits are being added to keep up with the program’s popularity.
“I think you’re going to see more and more museums adopt specialized programs such as this, due to the growing demand,” says Dr. Gorenstein-Holtzman. She is helping the Long Island Children’s Museum—where she is an advisory board member—develop such a program.
The museum connection is a natural fit for the Seaver Center, which uses community outreach to share its knowledge and resources with patients and families across the tri-state area. Supported by a grant from the UJA Federation of New York, Dr. Gorenstein-Holtzman develops evidence-based social skills programming for children, adolescents, and young adults with ASD. The children’s lessons focus on play and conversational skills, while the newly developed young adult curriculum focuses on employment-based social skills.
Citywide outreach also takes the form of a Community Lecture Series held at schools and local meeting halls and a Distinguished Lecturer Series that shares the latest autism research in areas such as epidemiology, genetics, and early detection that are relevant to caregivers and professionals. “What’s unique about the Seaver Center is that we don’t confine our research to the lab,” says Dr. Gorenstein-Holtzman. “We’re continually disseminating our findings to the community so that they have greater meaning.”
In addition, the Seaver Center is translating its materials into Spanish and offering its services to Spanish-speaking families. Pilar Trelles, MD, a child psychiatrist and Seaver Clinical Fellow, is the principal investigator on a research project that partners Latino families of children who are newly diagnosed with autism with “peer advocates” in their community. The peer advocates are actively engaged parents with special-needs children themselves, who have received training from the state. They help newcomers navigate the system, which can often seem complex and overwhelming.
“One of the things that’s important to us is reaching out to minority families who have little idea what we do or how to access the programs we provide,” says Dr. Trelles. “Peer advocates understand what these families are going through and can relate to them in ways that others can’t. They’re able to give them hope that things are going to get better and that their children are going to get the help they need.”
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community
From left: Eva Andersson-Dubin, MD; Shoshana and Kenny Dichter; Laurie Margolies, MD; and Elisa Port, MD
The Dubin Breast Center of The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Mount Sinai Health System recently celebrated its “five-year milestone” with a benefit at the Mandarin Oriental, New York. About 500 guests attended the event on Monday, December 5, raising more than $2.3 million to support the Center. The evening honored Shoshana and Kenny Dichter, whose private aviation company, WheelsUp, sponsors the #WheelsUpGoesPink campaign, seeking pledges and donating a portion of its membership initiation fees during October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In addition, the company flies the Pink Plane, a Beechcraft King Air 350i, as a year-round symbol of support and awareness for the cause. “We are so grateful to Kenny and Shoshana Dichter for their innovative thinking when it comes to fundraising and their advocacy for the Dubin Center,” says Mount Sinai Health System Trustee Eva Andersson-Dubin, MD, who presented the awards with Elisa Port, MD, FACS, the Center’s Director. “It’s been a match that fits perfectly with the innovation we do at the Dubin Breast Center.”
The event also honored Laurie Margolies, MD, Associate Professor of Radiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Director of Breast Imaging at the Dubin Breast Center. “Dr. Margolies has played a critical role in the development and success of the Dubin Breast Center,” Dr. Port says, “and it was so fitting that we honor her on the Center’s fifth anniversary.” Dr. Dubin, who founded the Center in 2011 with her husband, Mount Sinai Trustee and philanthropist Glenn Dubin, says, “I don’t think the Center would be even close to what it is if it were not for Laurie Margolies.” The Dubin Breast Center offers the latest, most innovative approaches available for breast health and the treatment of cancer under one roof.
The 15,000-square-foot facility is located on the campus of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and houses a range of services from cancer prevention to survivor support. The Center represents Mount Sinai’s vision for patient-centered breast cancer treatment and research—one that focuses on the emotional as well as the physical health and wellness of people who have, or may be at risk for, cancer.
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community
Kenyon Farrow addressed racial justice in HIV care.
In observance of World AIDS Day, the Mount Sinai Health System held two events in recognition of the disease’s multifaceted impact and the importance of HIV research, prevention, and treatment. In a special HIV grand rounds program, the Mount Sinai Institute for Advanced Medicine hosted Kenyon Farrow, U.S. and Global Health Policy Director with the Treatment Action Group, for an in-depth discussion of racial justice in HIV prevention and treatment. Following the discussion was a performance by Barbara Walsh, Broadway veteran and Tony nominee. The Health System also hosted a free screening of Memories of a Penitent Heart, a documentary written and directed by Cecilia Aldarondo, PhD, about her uncle, Miguel Dieppa, an aspiring actor and playwright who died of AIDS in the 1980s. The film was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Terri L. Wilder, MSW, Director of HIV/AIDS Education and Training at the Mount Sinai Institute for Advanced Medicine.
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community
From left: David B. Sachar, MD; Joanna S. Sachar; and Bruce E. Sands, MD, the Dr. Burrill B. Crohn Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Friends, family, faculty, and staff gathered in December to recognize David B. Sachar, MD, and his wife Joanna S. Sachar, for their many contributions to the field of gastroenterology and to celebrate the naming of a conference room in their honor at the Susan and Leonard Feinstein Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Center on The Mount Sinai Hospital campus. For nearly 50 years, Dr. Sachar, a Clinical Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has contributed to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) research and patient care, and served as a mentor to generations of medical students, residents, and fellows. He served as the founding director of the Burrill B. Crohn Research Foundation, and helped lay the foundation for Mount Sinai’s Feinstein IBD Clinical Center. Dr. Sachar’s significant impact on the field of IBD was recognized in 2014, when he received the lifetime achievement award from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America.
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community
Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, in the documentary The Resilient Heart.
The Resilient Heart, a new feature-length documentary on the work of Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Director of Mount Sinai Heart and Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital, was presented on Wednesday, December 14, at the New York Academy of Medicine. Nearly 300 people attended the screening of the film, which explores the history of cardiovascular disease, its evolution into a global epidemic, and how research, global health initiatives, and policy are aiding populations worldwide. The film tells this story through Dr. Fuster’s day-to-day work. Led by the Emmy-Award-winning director Susan Froemke, a film crew traveled with Dr. Fuster for a year as he pursued projects with partners in Colombia, Spain, Kenya, and Grenada, as well as Harlem and other parts of the United States. Along the way, the film shows firsthand the impact one doctor and his team can have when the mission is to improve lives through research-based cardiovascular education, mentoring, and gentle inspiration. Dr. Fuster says in the film, “If I have the chance to think in my last hour, I want to be sure that I can say, ‘Yes, I have done something that’s not for me, but for someone else.’ And to me that is a critical issue.” The Resilient Heart will be shown during the Tribeca Film Festival in April.
