Residents took a community health tour to meet local community leaders and visit the East Harlem Neighborhood Action Center, the East Harlem Asthma Center of Excellence, and the NYCHA Jefferson Houses. From left: Riana Jumamil, MD; Kierstin Luber, DO; Megha Srivastava, MD; and Betty Kolod, MD, Associate Residency Program Director.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai General Preventive Medicine Residency Program has won a prestigious federal grant designed to reduce social inequities in health care through enhanced resident training and expanded public health intervention.
Under terms of the four-year award, the program’s six residents take an intensive summer course in health equity. Residents learn about health literacy, communication, and data analysis skills to address health disparities. They will apply these skills during a longitudinal population health rotation at several Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) throughout New York City, which specialize in homelessness, HIV, and other issues.
“We’re excited for a deeper level of community engagement with these health centers and hope some residents continue their careers at FQHCs,” said Kristin Oliver, MD, MHS, General Preventive Medicine Residency Program Director and Associate Professor, Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Pediatrics, and Medical Education.
All of the program’s residents train in a broad range of topics including population health, quality improvement, lifestyle medicine, cancer prevention and tobacco cessation. Mount Sinai’s program is known for encouraging residents to customize their education according to individual passions. Each resident chooses a particular focus, such research or advocacy.
Recent program graduates include a resident who focused on primary care services for LGBTQ patients and worked with infectious disease doctors at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx to establish an HIV infection prevention program at the Center. Another graduate focused on research to address underrepresentation of the Black, Indigenous and People of Color community in cancer clinical trials.
Residents rotate through the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, working on issues such as COVID-19 response, measles outbreaks, and reducing pregnancy-associated mortality among Black women. Shifting public policy is also a focus of the residency program. All residents learn to write op-eds or give oral testimony as part of their training.
“Our specialty is so broad, which is what makes our residency so fun and fabulous,” said Dr. Oliver. “Each resident has a different passion, and we help identify mentors and bring their skills to the next level to make a big impact. Everyone brings in something different, then we all gain from it.”
Laura Sirbu, MD, the program’s co-chief resident, is studying how “upstream” factors such as barriers to health care access can be addressed to allow people in nearby communities to live healthier lives.
Dr. Sirbu said she is excited about the grant and that she is enjoying the training. “It’s great to secure extra support,” she said. “Mount Sinai’s program strength is its support of residents to go down different paths, allowing them to choose from a variety of project types and research topics.”
Residents can apply to the program, which is being renamed the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Public Health and General Preventive Medicine Residency Program, after completing one year of a clinical residency or after completing a full clinical residency.
During the two-year program, residents earn a Master’s Degree in Public Health. The program has longstanding ties with East Harlem’s nonprofit groups, which enable the program to build relationships and make a bigger impact.
“It’s not just one patient at a time, it’s the entire community,” said Dr. Oliver.
At the Third State Central Hospital in Ulaanbaatar are, left to right, Senzaaya, a scrub nurse, Saadi Ghatan, MD, Ariel Stock, MD, a neurosurgical resident at Montefiore Hospital, and Sloane Sheldon, PhD.
On Friday, May 12, Saadi Ghatan, MD, Chair of Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside, and Sloane Sheldon, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist in the Mount Sinai Epilepsy Program, boarded a ten-hour flight from New York to Istanbul. From there, they hopped on another ten-hour flight to Ulaanbaatar, the vibrant capital of Mongolia.
Thanks to support from the Virtue Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to transforming lives through health care, education, and empowerment initiatives, they spent the next two weeks providing medical services to epilepsy patients alongside a team of local doctors and volunteers representing a variety of advanced surgical and medical specialties.
On their first day in Ulaanbaatar, they arrived at the hospital at 8:30 am and met patients until midnight. Local neurosurgeon, Abai Siyez, MD, and epileptologist Bayarmaa Dondov, MD, had selected almost 150 patients for them to evaluate. In Mongolia, the options for epilepsy medications and pre-surgical evaluations are limited. Most patients can only get MRIs, which can be unreliable, and routine outpatient electroencephalograms (EEGs). With limited access to medication that could otherwise help, surgery becomes all the more important and sought after by patients and families.
Dr. Ghatan has a deep connection to Mongolia, as this marked his third visit to the country. His journey began in 2019 when he volunteered to teach local neurosurgeons advanced techniques and provide essential surgical procedures in pediatric neurosurgery. It was during this initial trip that he met Dr. Siyez at Third State Central Hospital in Ulaanbaatar. Dr. Siyez is the grandson of the man known as the founder of Mongolian neurosurgery. Dr. Ghatan introduced the team to neuroendoscopic surgery during that first volunteer trip. At the time, Third State Central Hospital lacked much of the surgical equipment required for these advanced surgical procedures.
Dedicated to his work and eager to advance in Neurosurgery in Mongolia, Dr. Siyez applied for funding from the Asian Development Bank to update the medical facilities at his hospital. Thanks to the grant funding he received, he successfully replaced his hospital’s outdated equipment and applied Dr. Ghatan’s teaching to treat new patients with state-of-the art equipment. One of Dr. Ghatan’s key aims in Mongolia is to continue collaborating with Dr. Siyez and sharing knowledge and techniques with local surgeons, allowing them to perform surgeries independently in the future.
Abai Siyez, MD, center, at the Third State Central Hospital in Ulaanbaatar with his team, performing a left temporal lobectomy surgery. Saadi Ghatan, MD, is shown on the right.
Dr. Ghatan and Dr. Sheldon screened patients in the first three days of their visit. Over the following week and a half, Dr. Ghatan, Dr. Siyez, and the surgical team successfully performed 21 epilepsy surgeries—an extraordinary number—ranging from temporal lobectomy to frontal and parieto-occipital disconnections, awake craniotomy, and more neuroendoscopy. As many of the locals are not fluent in English, Dr. Siyez plays an important role in making sure patients understand Dr. Ghatan’s communication, both culturally and medically.
Dr. Sheldon performed pre-surgical neuropsychological evaluations on patients. She administered patients with the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), a test used for evaluating cognitive functioning. Understanding the limitations of the test, which is designed for an American population, she worked closely with an interpreter who helped ensure the accuracy and the cultural appropriateness of the testing materials. This was her first medical trip to Mongolia, and she was impressed by how open and eager the locals were to receive a neuropsychological evaluation. In addition to seeing patients, she also delivered a lecture on neuropsychology with neurologists and psychiatrists in the audience, which was a very rewarding experience.
For Dr. Ghatan, the trip was particularly meaningful because he was able to see and interact with the patients he had operated on during his previous trips.
“Seeing these lovely people living better lives with much more independence is gratifying,” he says.
Follow up, of course, is critical, and after these visits, Dr. Siyez shares regular updates about the patients they saw. They are planning to organize a monthly/quarterly case management conference to streamline information sharing.
With so much demand for these surgical procedures, and a successful track record of working with and training local doctors like Dr. Siyez, these two Mount Sinai ambassadors hope this continued connection will motivate the hospital in Mongolia to invest in more resources and focus on building better collaborations between neurologists, neuropsychologists, and neurosurgeons.
Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Ghatan are both looking forward making another volunteer trip to continue to improve the lives of people living with epilepsy and transfer knowledge to doctors in Mongolia. They were struck by how open and optimistic their patients were.
“The patients and their families were strong, resilient, and extraordinarily grateful,” says Dr. Sheldon. “I was so impressed by how open the locals are to take extra measures to ensure that they get the treatment they need and deserve.”
The annual Dubin Breast Center Fact vs. Fiction symposium provides a forum for Mount Sinai’s nationally recognized physician-researchers to share the latest breakthroughs in breast cancer care and to answer questions related to cutting-edge topics in adolescent and women’s health.
More than 160 guests attended the event on Monday, May 22, raising more than $180,000 in support of the Center. Held at the Harmonie Club in New York, the event was the most attended ever and sold out for the first time.
Leading the event were Mount Sinai Health System Trustee Eva Andersson-Dubin, MD, who founded the Center, which is part of The Tisch Cancer Institute, and Elisa Port, MD, FACS, Chief of Breast Surgery and Director of the Center.
In her opening remarks, Dr. Port emphasized the Center’s continued commitment to providing the most advanced treatment options to all patients.
“The Dubin Breast Center has become a destination in breast cancer care, not only in the city, but in the country and the world. We’re getting patients coming from all over, knowing that the care we deliver is exceptional,” she said. “It’s important to note that what really distinguishes our Center is that we don’t treat patients with breast cancer. We treat people, and we treat people regardless of the ability to pay—that’s always been part of our mission.”
Panelists from left: Amy Tiersten, MD; Christina Weltz, MD; Gylynthia E. Trotman, MD, MPH; Laurie Margolies, MD, FSBI, FACR; and Jeffrey Mechanick, MD.
Dr. Port served as moderator for the discussion with a panel of Mount Sinai experts, which included Amy Tiersten, MD; Christina Weltz, MD; Gylynthia E. Trotman, MD, MPH; Laurie Margolies, MD, FSBI, FACR; and Jeffrey Mechanick, MD. Watch the recording of the event here.
Dr. Tiersten, a renowned medical oncologist, addressed the challenges faced by women of child-bearing years with breast cancer. She pointed to exciting results of a recent clinical trial that studied 500 women aged 42 and under with Stage 1-3 breast cancer, who had been taking certain cancer-fighting medications for 18 to 30 months; these women paused their drug regimen for two years while they attempted to conceive, carry a pregnancy, and breastfeed. About 75 percent of the women in the trial had at least one pregnancy during that time, with no negative effects on their babies. Importantly, the study also found that none of the women appeared to have a higher risk of breast cancer recurrence.
That information was life-changing for Suzanne Foote, a Dubin Breast Center patient who shared her inspirational story at the event. She began regular screenings in her 20s, after learning that she has an inherited PALB2 gene mutation that carries an increased risk for developing the disease. Her mother died from breast cancer when she was only 43. Suzanne Foote was diagnosed in 2019, less than a year after marrying her husband, Mark.
“It was a tremendous shock,” she said, “which reverberated further when we realized cancer would be a hurdle in our quest to start a family.”
Thankfully, her cancer was caught early. Even so, she had a bilateral mastectomy to reduce the chance of the disease returning. Drs. Port and Tiersten also recommended that she undergo in vitro fertilization since some treatments for breast cancer, such as certain types of chemotherapy, can cause infertility. Later on, after consulting with Dr. Tiersten, she decided to take a break from therapy to get pregnant. Her twins, Peter and Josephine, were born at Mount Sinai in September of 2022.
“I was lucky to spend time with the amazing doctors at the Dubin Center. As a result of the time that they spent, here I am, enjoying the best time of my life,” she said. “JoJo and Pete are turning eight months, and I’m still healthy and cancer free.”
The Dubin Breast Center was created in 2011 to provide comprehensive, personalized care for every aspect of breast health, from prevention of disease through survivorship. It offers a full range of services—including the most advanced diagnostics and leading-edge treatments—in one convenient, state-of-the-art location. The Center is also unique for its emphasis on holistic therapies, such as massage, yoga, and meditation, which can promote healing and improve one’s overall well-being.
Some of the plenary presenters at the 25th Annual Child Health Research Day along with members of the 2023 Steering Committee. They are shown with the 2023 Honoree, Kathryn M. Edwards, MD, front and center, Professor of Pediatrics, Sarah H. Sell and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair, and Scientific Director, Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, Vanderbilt University, who is standing beside Lisa M Satlin, MD, in the white coat, Chair, Department of Pediatrics.
Eighteen Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai researchers gave oral presentations on a range of topics, including child psychiatry, environmental medicine, and maternal health, at the 25th Annual Child Health Research Day, held on Thursday, April 13, in Hatch Auditorium.
“Tonight, we celebrate Mount Sinai’s ability to provide the highest-quality health care, educate the next generation of great clinicians and researchers, and generate scientific breakthroughs that advance the capabilities of modern medicine,” Dennis S. Charney, MD, said in his opening remarks.
For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mount Sinai Health System Crystal Party tent was up and abuzz in Central Park’s Conservatory Garden. Beneath its rainbow big top, nearly 800 physicians, faculty, staff, trustees, supporters, and friends of the Mount Sinai Health System collected to celebrate the past year’s research and health care advances, achieved under extraordinary conditions. The event, held Thursday, May 4, raised $3 million in support of the Health System.
The 38th annual celebration kicked off with remarks from Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Tonight, we celebrate Mount Sinai’s ability to provide the highest-quality health care, educate the next generation of great clinicians and researchers, and generate scientific breakthroughs that advance the capabilities of modern medicine,” he said.
Dr. Charney made a special effort to highlight some of Mount Sinai’s proudest, current research achievements.
“Our scientists have begun human clinical trials of a diabetes drug they discovered that has the potential to be transformative,” he said. “A drug that can regenerate the pancreatic cells that produce insulin. This could be nothing less than a cure for type 2 diabetes. In recent months, Mount Sinai researchers have also identified an immune cell that helps kill bladder cancer tumors, identified genes strongly linked to autism, and conducted an unprecedented analysis of immune cells in the brain that appear to play a key role in the genetic risk and development of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Turning his attention to the leading patient care enabled by the generosity of Mount Sinai’s donors, Dr. Charney said, “Today, Mount Sinai is serving more patients, with more advanced services than ever before, as we’ve significantly expanded our ambulatory footprint across the five boroughs and Long Island. After performing the world’s first human tracheal transplant, Mount Sinai established the Institute for Airway Sciences to advance new therapies for patients with diseases of the trachea, lung, and sinuses.”
Looking to the future, he shared news of a number of capital improvement projects under consideration, to further enhance patient care.
“The next phase of the expansion and modernization of the Saul Family Emergency Department at The Mount Sinai Hospital will be finished in July. It will include a new acute care zone, an observation unit, and a separate Geriatrics Emergency Department to complement our new Children’s Emergency Department,” he said. “Early next year, we will open new offices at Mount Sinai West for the Bonnie and Tom Strauss Movement Disorders Center and the Nash Family Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics. And our next great project—the Tisch Cancer Hospital—will begin construction next month.”
Dr. Charney thanked the donors in the audience for their partnership and closed by saying, “It is no exaggeration to say that the return on your investment can be measured in diseases cured and lives saved.”
As these moving stories of patient successes came to a close, Richard A. Friedman, Co-Chair of Mount Sinai Health System Boards of Trustees, came to the podium.
“Mount Sinai’s work over the past three years in our hospitals, clinics, classrooms, and labs has burnished their reputation as one of the truly great academic medical centers, not only in this country but in the world,” Richard A. Friedman, Co-Chair of Mount Sinai Health System Boards of Trustees, said in his concluding remarks.
“Three years ago,” he observed, “you would not have found a single soul in this beautiful garden in this area. New York City was in lockdown and the only tents in Central Park were those of Samaritans First, where our doctors were caring for COVID-19 patients for whom there were no hospital beds. That was a moment of crisis when Mount Sinai was busy saving thousands of lives. Tonight, years later, it’s finally time to toast all that the Mount Sinai Health System does for our community and for humanity through the advancement of biomedicine.”
As he concluded, reminding everyone in attendance of the importance of their philanthropy to saving lives, Mr. Friedman stated, “Mount Sinai’s work over the past three years in our hospitals, clinics, classrooms, and labs has burnished their reputation as one of the truly great academic medical centers, not only in this country but in the world. So, my tribute is to all the doctors, the faculty, the researchers, and everyone at Mount Sinai.”
A workshop held by the simulation lab at the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health demonstrates best practices for moving and handling patients.
Providers at Mount Sinai’s Emergency Medical Service (EMS) treat, transfer, and move patients—some in extreme situations. They work through small spaces, up and down stairs, and even extricate patients from under subway trains while providing medical care throughout a call. It can be hazardous.
Nationwide, injury rates among EMS responders are increasing as they dedicate themselves to helping patients with urgent medical needs. In 2020, for example, 24 percent of EMS practitioner work-related emergency room visits were for strains and sprains, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. EMS providers have reported injuries related to the physical nature of their jobs, which can leave them with permanent disabilities, forcing them to leave the field.
In response to the increase in injuries throughout the United States, and with concern for the EMS providers, a partnership program between the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health and Mount Sinai Health Systems Emergency Medical Services was launched to help reduce the incidence of work-related strains and sprains.
“When the EMS department asked us to develop an injury prevention training program, we were clear that this was an integral part of our mission at the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health,” said Arlette Loeser, MA, Program Director of the Ergonomics and Injury Prevention Program at the Selikoff Centers. “We worked closely with them to provide education and support to our EMS responders. We aimed to fill the void of injury prevention programs, leading to the development of an effective program of interactive training and teaching tools for our responders who are risking injury on a daily basis.”
Ms. Loeser, an ergonomist and educator for more than 25 years, said she was pleased to learn that workers had expressed gratitude for the new program and for Mount Sinai’s commitment to supporting a safe work environment.
Khalid Kazi, Senior Manager of EMS Training and Safety, said EMS sought the advice of the occupational medicine experts at the Selikoff Centers when confronted with a rising numbers of staff injuries. The Selikoff team consisted of experts in ergonomics, nursing, medicine, and a volunteer firefighter emergency medical technician.
“They developed a unique model for an injury prevention workshop with a simulation segment and downloadable safety posters to help our department’s responders develop best practices in understanding how to effectively move patients safely,” he said. “We hope to create an environment where any EMS provider may be able to safely operate while providing the high standard of care expected by Mount Sinai.”
