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VF Society Gathers to Celebrate Mentor Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, and Share Insights in Cardiology

Oct 5, 2023 | Community, Featured

Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, with physicians in the VF Society, an association of alumni that recently held its 18th Anniversary Dinner.

The Valentin Fuster (VF) Society, a nonprofit alumni association composed of graduates of the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute, recently held its 18th Anniversary Dinner at the New York Academy of Medicine. One-hundred-twenty alumni attended the event to discuss academic and clinical ideas, reconnect with former colleagues, and express profound appreciation of Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, President of Mount Sinai Heart and Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital.

Graduates who have trained with Dr. Fuster created the VF Society to strengthen the bond among alumni and The Mount Sinai Hospital. More than 250 alumni who have trained under Dr. Fuster since 1981 belong to the VF Society. The anniversary dinner is generally held every two years, drawing VF Society members from across the United States and Canada. This year’s gathering was the first since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Besides being an extraordinary clinician and mentor, Dr. Fuster takes a genuine interest in each and every fellow’s life. They keep in touch with him and seek his guidance throughout their distinguished careers,” said Martin Goldman, MD, the Dr. Arthur M. and Hilda A. Master Professor of Medicine (Cardiology), Program Director of the Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program, and an organizer of the event.

The evening included a panel discussion on the current and future state of cardiology with Dr. Fuster and Eugene Braunwald, MD, the Hersey Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, moderated by Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, Director of Mount Sinai Heart and the Dr. Valentin Fuster Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, and Dr. Goldman. Dr. Bhatt said, “It was an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime event to see these two cardiovascular legends discuss the key issues in cardiovascular medicine.”

“This celebration was an important opportunity to share scientific information and insights in our field and to strengthen the camaraderie unique to fellows that I have had the privilege to train,” said Dr. Fuster.

Public Health and Racial Justice Program Encourages Girls of Color to See Themselves As Agents of Change

Oct 4, 2023 | Community, Engagement, Featured

The Mount Sinai Department of Health Education, with support from The Blavatnik Family Women’s Health Research Institute, hosted its first in-person cohort of the Public Health and Racial Justice Program. Over the course of six weeks in July and August, 15 youth participants, all identifying as girls of color, met daily at The Mount Sinai Hospital to explore a variety of public health issues through a racial justice lens.

The Public Health and Racial Justice Program emphasizes the power and importance of civic engagement, community organizing, and youth activism in addressing the inequities that drive health disparities. The program aims to build skills, foster pride, and nurture community connection so that participants understand themselves as lifelong stakeholders invested in shaping the policies, institutions, and structures that affect the health and well-being of their families and their communities.

“Hearing from both younger people and people who were actively involved in their communities and making a difference was inspiring and presented tangible ways for me to get involved in the community.”

The Public Health and Racial Justice Program was designed and launched in the spring of 2020 as a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. Due to pandemic restrictions, the previous four cohorts participated in a part-time version of this program over video conferencing.

With generous support from the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation, and in partnership with The Blavatnik Family Women’s Health Institute, the Department of Health Education was able to significantly expand this summer programming, offering a full-time opportunity with a stipend for participating youth.

More than 80 guest speakers—primarily women of color—from across the Mount Sinai Health System, and from local and national organizations, spoke on a variety of issues, broadening participants’ understanding of the many different pathways one can follow into health equity and social justice work. The program featured union labor organizers, doulas, scientists, clinicians, sexuality educators, grassroots activists, researchers, and leaders from city agencies, including the Bureau of Health Equity Capacity Building at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the New York City Public Advocate Office.

“My favorite part was hearing from the different activists and non-profit workers,” said one participant. “Hearing from both younger people and people who were actively involved in their communities and making a difference was inspiring and presented tangible ways for me to get involved in the community.”

Another participant added, “I loved meeting all the guest speakers and organizations. The most meaningful part was the new relationships I made and learning more about how to help my community.”

Participants completed a culminating project reflective of their summer experience. Each participant selected a public health issue affecting their community, which they documented using a unique photography application. They were then led through a series of semi-structured, dialogue-based activities with staff and peers to support their development of a complementary narrative. This narrative included suggested action steps for those inspired to get involved.

Participants presented their projects at a celebratory symposium on the final day of programming, attended by Mount Sinai staff, community partners, and their family and friends. Their work was featured in a gallery at The Mount Sinai Hospital, and guests were invited to explore.

For many of the participants, spending the summer in a safe space with other girls of color was a profound experience.

When asked about the most meaningful part of the program, responses included:

“Having that space to be myself and being able to express what I am thinking at the moment. Being vulnerable and having that respect that most of the time adults don’t give to teenagers. I loved the relationships that were built in such a short amount of time.”

“Feeling comfortable and welcomed into this space and meeting all these wonderful and intelligent people who inspire me to embrace who I am.”

“Getting to know other people of color that are around my age and listening to everyone’s different opinions and perspectives.”

For some participants, learning about the relationship between racism and health was new and eye-opening.

“All the things we talked about and learned about in the program were all new information to me so everything surprised me,” said one. “It surprised me that we aren’t taught these things in school but if we want to gain more knowledge on these topics, we have to learn it on our own or from a program like this. I learned a lot about Black maternal health, homelessness, workers’ rights.”

Many of the participants also appreciated learning more about the various career paths that can contribute to health equity.

“At first I thought I knew what career I wanted to be, to become a nurse practitioner. But I met really nice people in the program who talked about their careers and that gave me more options to be open to my opportunities,” said one. “I also thought that many professionals had one path and that they knew they were going to be where they are now but I learned that there is nothing wrong with switching to a different field and it’s all about being happy that you’re doing that job.”

When asked to share their final thoughts on the program, one participant said, “I truly appreciated having the opportunity to be a part of such a wonderful program. I learned so much from the positive and caring program leaders/educators, the speakers, and the other girls in the program.”

To learn more about the summer 2023 session, read the full report

Mount Sinai West Installs Dedicated Cardiovascular CT System

Sep 21, 2023 | Community, Featured

As part of a continued expansion of cardiology imaging, Mount Sinai West has opened its first dedicated cardiovascular computerized tomography (CT) system, called Cardiographe.

This new CT system addresses the challenges of scanning patients with high or unstable heart rates, a common issue in urgent cardiac imaging, providing robust clinical detail needed for diagnosis and assessment.

“The launch of CardioGraphe at Mount Sinai West underscores our commitment to providing the best possible care for our patients, enhancing both accessibility and quality in the early diagnosis and treatment of heart disease,” said Jeffrey Bander, MD, FACC, Chief of Cardiology, Mount Sinai West. “Our aim is to improve access to high-quality imaging solutions, and the CardioGraphe is an affordable and accessible tool that allows physicians to diagnose and treat patients with cardiovascular diseases more efficiently.”

This system can create a 3D image of the coronaries, valves, chambers, and myocardium in a single heartbeat and can perform CT angiography studies beyond the heart, including the aorta and carotid arteries. It provides physicians with crucial information about heart function and the necessary anatomic detail to plan procedures like Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) and Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR).

To schedule a patient, call 212-636-4107 or email MSWCT@mountsinai.org.

After a Summer on Capitol Hill, a Mount Sinai Medical Student Draws Attention to the Need for Changes to Medicare and Medicaid to Help Vulnerable Populations

Updated on Sep 22, 2023 | Community, Featured, School

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, MD, (R-LA), left, and Mount Sinai medical student Sunjay Letchuman

With the annual Medicare open enrollment period approaching, Mount Sinai medical student Sunjay Letchuman (class of 2026) and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, MD, (R-LA) have come together to shine a light on a vulnerable population of Americans who are poor, elderly, and sometimes disabled. This group of more than 12 million Americans is so called “dually eligible” because they qualify for insurance through both Medicare and Medicaid.

Having two forms of insurance might seem to be better than one. But data reveal that dually eligible individuals experience worse health outcomes when compared to similar populations, even after controlling for confounding variables. These poor health outcomes result, in part, from the lack of payment coordination between Medicare and Medicaid.

“Medicare pays for most hospital services while Medicaid pays for long-term care services, such as nursing home care,” says Mr. Letchuman. “Without payment coordination between the two insurers, Medicaid does not know that a dually eligible patient is hospitalized unless subsequent long-term care is needed. As such, Medicaid has no financial incentive to prevent the hospitalization in the first place in light of Medicare’s responsibility to pay. This is just one illustration of how poor coordination is not serving these patients, who experience longer hospitalizations and higher costs.”

This summer, Mr. Letchuman, raised in Louisiana, had the unique opportunity to research this policy issue while serving as a Health Fellow for Dr. Cassidy. While working together, Dr. Cassidy suggested they co-author an article to draw attention to the problem. The result: a Viewpoint essay published in JAMA September 15 titled, “A Prescription for Americans Dually Eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.”

“It was a pleasure to co-author this piece with my health fellow, medical colleague, and Shreveport, Louisiana, native Sunjay Letchuman,” says Dr. Cassidy. “Dually eligible patients have poor outcomes, despite society devoting significant resources to pay for their care. Sunjay spent his time as a health fellow learning this issue and, as importantly, using this understanding to help develop solutions. He is a health scholar serving patients, profession, and country by other means. This editorial is a manifestation and furtherance of this service.”

Mount Sinai medical student Sunjay Letchuman with a patient

In their JAMA article, the pair conclude that the federal government should establish guidelines requiring care to be coordinated between Medicare and Medicaid at the state level. Dr. Cassidy is part of a bipartisan group of six senators working to get this done. The issue is of particular relevance to New York as the state is home to a high number of dually eligible Americans, as is the case in the two authors’ home state.

“Addressing the needs of dually eligible Americans is more than just a policy interest of mine; it’s a commitment to serve my home state of Louisiana where more than 250,000 dually eligible Americans live and deserve better coordinated care and improved health outcomes,” says Dr. Letchuman.

This was not Mr. Letchuman’s first deep dive into a health policy issue. Over the summer, he also co-authored an article in the New England Journal of Medicine about whether nonprofit hospitals deserve their tax exemptions—an issue he worked on as a health fellow for the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means.

“In exchange for not paying taxes, nonprofit hospitals are required to provide substantial community benefit and charity care. Not all nonprofit hospitals fulfill this commitment, and local communities pay the price,” he says.

Mr. Letchuman studied the business of health care as an undergraduate, which has helped prepare him for a career in both medicine and health policy. This made him a perfect candidate for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s FlexMed program, which encourages college sophomores in any major to apply and provides students with the flexibility to pursue their academic passions during college. Mount Sinai was the first medical school to create an admissions pathway that provides such early assurance.

“The FlexMed program allowed me to pursue my health policy dreams early in college,” he says. “I am confident that Mount Sinai’s education and support, then and now, are shaping me into a more effective physician and policymaker.”

Kimberly Souffront, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, to Be Inducted As a Fellow in the American Academy of Nurses

Updated on Sep 29, 2023 | Community, Nursing, Stories of Excellence

Kimberly Souffront, PhD, RN, FNP-BC

Kimberly Souffront, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, Associate Director, Center for Nursing Research and Innovation at Mount Sinai, has been selected as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (AAN). The induction ceremony will take place at the Academy’s annual Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., in October.

Academy fellows are inducted in recognition of their extraordinary contributions to improve health locally and globally. With nearly 3,000 fellows, AAN comprises nursing’s most accomplished leaders in policy, research, administration, practice, and academia.

Dr. Souffront has made many novel and influential contributions to health equity, nursing research, and health care delivery locally and globally. Her research has centered around the treatment of Black emergency department patients with hypertension, and the application of innovative interventions that include blood biomarkers, bioinformatics, and telehealth.

Dr. Souffront, who is also Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, was the first in her field to document the attitudinal and organizational barriers to hypertension recognition among multidisciplinary emergency clinicians across the United States. This study influenced the development, implementation, and evaluation of an informatics intervention to improve nurse- and physician-recognition of uncontrolled hypertension and clinical outcomes. She recently documented that Stage B heart failure is ubiquitous in Black emergency department patients with asymptomatic hypertension—research expected to influence practice and policy throughout the United States.

Dr. Souffront is passionate about advancing the role that nurses play in translational research and improving health outcomes. To assure research initiatives align with the needs of clinical nurses, Dr. Souffront designed, led, and implemented a large, multi-center study that found clinical nurses are willing to participate in research and evidence-based practice initiatives, if given the time, opportunity, and support to learn the needed skills. This work has been disseminated nationally and internationally and has informed several significant educational initiatives.

Dr. Souffront is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing and a founder and current Editor-in-Chief of the journal Practical Implementation of Nursing Science.

“Congratulations to Dr. Souffront for this well-deserved and prestigious honor,” said Beth Oliver, DNP, RN, FAAN, Chief Nurse Executive and Senior Vice President, Cardiac Services at the Mount Sinai Health System.

New Mount Sinai-Harlem Health Center Opens, Providing Quality Outpatient Primary and Specialty Care, and Behavioral Health

Sep 17, 2023 | Community, Featured

The Mount Sinai Health System has expanded its presence in Upper Manhattan with the opening of the new Mount Sinai-Harlem Health Center, a state-of-the-art outpatient medical facility that brings the highest quality health care to the community. The 12-story, 85,000-square-foot medical building, completed at a cost of $80 million, will be home to primary care and specialty practices for adults and children, and will also offer dentistry, mental health services, imaging, and a specialty pharmacy.

A multispecialty practice, scheduled to open on the first floor in 2024, will be staffed by board certified physicians offering primary care and a wide range of specialties, including Cardiology (heart), Gastroenterology (digestive diseases), Nephrology (kidneys), Ophthalmology (eye care), Orthopedics (bones), and Podiatry (feet), initially. Mental health services for adults and children will also be available when the behavioral health clinics, currently located at Mount Sinai Morningside, move to the new building.

The new Health Center will also be home to Mount Sinai’s Institute for Advanced Medicine (IAM), a service dedicated to providing comprehensive, compassionate care to underserved communities and patients with specialized needs.

The first office to open in the new space is IAM’s Jack Martin and Morningside Clinics, which are moving from The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Morningside. The new location will centralize the two practices as the new Jack Martin Fund Center. The Center provides primary and specialized care to patients who are HIV positive and those at high risk for developing HIV or other sexually transmitted infections. In addition to maintaining the same services and care team, the new, state-of-the-art center will provide patients with direct access to one health care destination that offers services including acupuncture; dentistry; dermatology; gynecology; HIV care; massage therapy; mental health; nephrology; neurology (nervous system, including brain); nutrition; pain management; pediatrics; and care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, asexual, and intersex people.

A radiology suite offering X-ray and ultrasound imaging, as well as bone density testing, will open in 2024. A new specialty pharmacy, also slated to open in 2024, will be available to patients as well as members of the surrounding community.

“Our goal for Mount Sinai-Harlem Health is to bring increased access for much-needed specialty care to the community,” says Berthe Erisnor, MBA, Vice President, Ambulatory Services, Mount Sinai Morningside. “This beautiful, state-of-the-art facility gives us the ability to offer comprehensive services and advanced medical technology closer to the patients we serve. Expanding the community’s access to both primary and specialty care is something that we take very seriously.”

Mount Sinai’s Commitment to Upper Manhattan

Mount Sinai’s $80-million investment in the Mount Sinai-Harlem Health Center is part of its broad commitment to providing inclusive, equitable, high-quality medical care and cutting-edge technology to all the communities it serves, including the residents of Upper Manhattan.

In 2022, Mount Sinai relocated its nursing school to East Harlem. The Phillips School of Nursing (PSON), located at 148 East 126th Street, provides a diverse student body with a progressive curriculum combining effective classroom teaching with clinical practice. PSON is dedicated to engaging its Upper Manhattan neighbors through community-based programs facilitated by its students and has established a partnership with the DREAM Charter School in East Harlem to expose students in grades K-12 to careers in health care.

In 2019, Mount Sinai opened the New York Proton Center (NYPC), the region’s foremost destination for proton and radiation therapy to treat cancer. Located at 225 East 126 Street, NYPC was created in partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Montefiore Medical Center.

Mount Sinai Doctors-West 147th Street, a long-established and highly regarded primary care practice, is located at 2771 Frederick Douglass Boulevard at 147th Street in the heart of Harlem. Board-certified medical doctors representing the diversity of the community provide a wide range of health care services and access to all the resources of Mount Sinai Morningside.

“Mount Sinai has a long and proud history of serving the Upper Manhattan community, and our new Mount Sinai-Harlem Health Center is the latest in our ongoing commitment to deliver world-class care, resources, and services to where the community lives and works,” said Kelly Cassano, DO, Chief Executive Officer, Mount Sinai Doctors Faculty Practice; Dean for Clinical Affairs, Icahn Mount Sinai; and Senior Vice President for Ambulatory Operations, Mount Sinai Health System.

Mount Sinai-Harlem Health Center is located at 158 West 124th Street, between Adam Clayton Powell and Malcolm X boulevards.

Learn more about the Mount Sinai - Harlem Health Center

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