Featured | Mount Sinai Today

Road to Resilience Episode 12: Somebody to Lean On

May 30, 2019 | Featured, Insights

Kate Milliken

The science is in: We’re stronger together. Supportive social networks are linked to better health, protection against depression, and even a longer life.

In the latest episode of the Road to Resilience podcast from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, multiple sclerosis patients Kate Milliken and Elizabeth Jones talk about how their tight-knit MS community has made them more resilient.

The two met on MyCounterpane.com (now moodify.com), a once-thriving online community for people with chronic illness. And they are being treated by the same doctor, Stephen Krieger, MD, a neurologist at The Corinne Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis at The Mount Sinai Hospital. But everybody can benefit from tight bonds with people who “get” them.

Elizabeth Jones

The resilience research mentioned in this episode appears in the book, “Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges,” by Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Steven Southwick, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University.

Road to Resilience brings you stories and insights to help you thrive in a challenging world. From fighting burnout and trauma to building resilient families and communities, the podcast explores what’s possible when science meets the human spirit. To listen, visit Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, or the Road to Resilience website.

You can find more information about living with MS in the trailer for the Moodify movie and Kate Milliken’s MS Facebook group (new members welcome).

Learn more about The Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis at The Mount Sinai Hospital

Listen to other episodes of the Road to Resilience podcast

Listen to a Road to Resilience Bonus: Three Resilience Tips for Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

Becker’s Healthcare: Mount Sinai Health System Among the 150 Top Places to Work in Health Care

May 23, 2019 | Community, Featured

Mount Sinai Health System is included in the “150 Top Places to Work in Healthcare 2019” compiled by Becker’s Healthcare. The list highlights hospitals, health systems, and health care companies that promote diversity within the workforce, employee engagement, and professional growth.

Read the article in Becker’s Hospital Review

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Celebrates 50th Commencement

May 16, 2019 | Featured, School

On Thursday, May 9, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai celebrated its 50th Commencement with a ceremony at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. The School granted 157 degrees. Additionally, honorary degrees were granted to Commencement speakers, Scott Gottlieb, MD, and Curtis Martin. Dr. Gottlieb is the former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Mr. Martin, a National Football League Hall of Famer, has supported Mount Sinai’s efforts to develop a safe, non-addictive, non-opioid pain medication.

Three Physicians at Mount Sinai Receive Top Safety Rating for Cardiac Catheterization

May 13, 2019 | Cardiology, Featured

The two-star designation for exceptional safety rates in percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) was awarded to, from left, Samin K. Sharma, MD; Annapoorna S. Kini, MD; and Pedro Moreno, MD.

For the 21st consecutive year, The Mount Sinai Hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory or its interventionalists have received the highest two-star safety rating from the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) for percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI), also known as angioplasty. PCI— one of the most common procedures for patients with coronary artery disease— opens blocked arteries and restores normal blood flow to the heart.

Mount Sinai was the only hospital at which three interventionalists received the two-star designation for safety rates significantly exceeding the statewide average. The physicians recognized were Samin K. Sharma, MD, Director of Clinical and Interventional Cardiology at The Mount Sinai Hospital, and the Anandi Lal Sharma Professor of Medicine in Cardiology; Annapoorna S. Kini, MD, Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, and the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Professor of Medicine; and Pedro Moreno, MD, Professor of Medicine (Cardiology). They performed a total of 6,529 PCI procedures from December 1, 2013, to November 30, 2016.

Mount Sinai’s exceptional ratings appeared in the latest NYSDOH report, released in April 2019, on the risk factors associated with PCI at 62 hospitals across New York State. The NYSDOH began publishing PCI safety ratings in 1995, in reports designed to help patients make better decisions about their care based upon a statistical review of each hospital’s data. “Patient safety is our top priority at The Mount Sinai Hospital Catheterization Laboratory,” Dr. Sharma says. “Our efficiency and safety outcomes are unparalleled, and we are very proud of this achievement, which is only possible because of the talented and dedicated interventional cardiology team.”

Dr. Kini says, “Our procedural outcomes data over the last several years support the statement that we have mastered the art of PCI. As a result, many patients who were considered too high-risk to receive care elsewhere are referred here. As we increasingly accept complex cases, our PCI complications continue to decline, which is a testament to the quality work this Cath Lab achieves.”

During the three-year period, The Mount Sinai Hospital had a risk-adjusted PCI mortality rate of 0.90 percent for all of its cases—emergency and non-emergency—significantly lower than the statewide average of 1.18 percent, while performing the largest number of procedures (10,888). For non-emergency cases, Mount Sinai’s PCI mortality rate was 0.58 percent, compared with the statewide average of 0.77 percent.

“I believe Mount Sinai is a leader in PCI for a few reasons,” says Dr. Moreno, Director of Cardiac Catheterization and Interventional Cardiology, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s. “Primarily, we have an extremely talented group of interventionalists and supporting staff. Second, we strictly abide by protocols and standards of care, while embracing new technologies and techniques, and finally, compassion and genuine concern for our patients’ health are our top priorities.”

Joining Forces to Create a New Digital Health Institute

Updated on Nov 19, 2025 | Artificial Intelligence, Featured, Research

From left: Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System; and Christoph Meinel, PhD, Chief Executive Officer, Hasso Plattner Institute, and Dean, Joint Digital Engineering Faculty, Hasso Plattner Institute and University of Potsdam.

The Mount Sinai Health System and the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), a leading data science research and educational institution in Germany, have formed an affiliation that will combine their expertise in health care delivery, biomedical and digital engineering, and artificial intelligence. The aim is to develop digital health tools with real-time predictive and preventive capabilities that empower patients and health care providers and improve health outcomes.

Erwin P. Bottinger, MD, left, and Joel Dudley, PhD, are co-directors of the new Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health at Mount Sinai.

The newly formed Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health at Mount Sinai will be led by Joel Dudley, PhD, Executive Vice President for Precision Health, Mount Sinai Health System, Mount Sinai Professor in Biomedical Data Science, and Director of the Institute for Next Generation Healthcare, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Erwin P. Bottinger, MD, Professor of Digital Health-Personalized Medicine, Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam, Germany, and Head of HPI’s Digital Health Center. A $15 million gift from the Hasso Plattner Foundation will establish the new Institute, which was announced in March at the Icahn School of Medicine.

“This endeavor will usher in a new era of digital health at Mount Sinai that advances the field of precision medicine,” says Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System. “By leveraging our shared knowledge and academic excellence, Mount Sinai and HPI are positioned to find solutions that will revolutionize health care and science, and improve health nationally and globally.”

The Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health at Mount Sinai joins more than 20 institutes launched at the Icahn School of Medicine. Its goals include building a digital health population of engaged participants to collect comprehensive and longitudinal health data from wearable devices, genetic sequencing, and electronic health records; creating a cloud-based health data platform for research and care using machine learning and artificial intelligence; and researching and testing prototype digital health solutions for patients, providers, and health systems. Mount Sinai’s expertise in genomics, big data, supercomputing, and bioinformatics—along with a large and diverse patient population and an ability to translate from the lab directly to the clinic—provides a foundation for the Institute.

For example, the Institute for Next Generation Healthcare (INGH), under the leadership of Dr. Dudley, has developed a translational biomedical research model using advances in clinical medicine, digital health, and artificial intelligence, and INGH’s Lab 100 is leveraging data and technology to redesign the way health is measured and health care is delivered. In another innovative effort, the BioMe™ BioBank Program, housed at The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine at Mount Sinai, is enabling researchers to conduct genetic, epidemiologic, molecular, and genomic studies on large collections of research specimens linked with electronic health records. Until 2015, Dr. Bottinger was Professor of Medicine (Nephrology), and Pharmacological Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine, and he helped lay the groundwork for the BioBank Program and The Institute for Personalized Medicine.

“Investigators at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Hasso Plattner Institute have been publishing groundbreaking work in the areas of genome diagnostics, precision medicine, digital health, biomedical data science, artificial intelligence, and information technology,” says Dr. Dudley. “We believe the new Institute will help turn the promise of digital health into reality at the front lines of next generation health care.”

Dr. Bottinger says, “We know we can save lives, prevent disease, and improve the health of patients with artificial intelligence in real-time analysis of health data from electronic health records, genetic information, and mobile sensor technologies.”

Honoring Mount Sinai Volunteers at a Breakfast

May 13, 2019 | Community, Featured

From left: Claudia Colgan; Dennis S. Charney, MD; Peter W. May; Shari Kaplan; and Kenneth L. Davis, MD

Volunteers who serve The Mount Sinai Hospital and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai—helping staff in areas of patient care, research, and administration—were celebrated at a breakfast on Wednesday, April 10, during National Volunteer Recognition Week. The event was held in Annenberg West Lobby.

Peter W. May, now Chairman Emeritus of the Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees, and a steadfast supporter of the Department of Volunteer Services and this annual breakfast, reflected on the volunteer legacy that exists at Mount Sinai. “The history of our institution goes back to our founding by a small group of volunteers and the spirit to give back to the community,” he said. “Today, volunteerism at Mount Sinai continues to grow, and that strengthens us.”

Addressing the volunteers, Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, said, “Currently, we have more than 1,100 volunteers in more than 250 placement areas. What exactly have you done? Among many other activities, you have helped patients take more than 1,500 walks and engaged them in more than 1,600 active range of motion exercises. You helped nearly 1,000 patients get out of bed for many reasons, not just during mealtime. Your work is invaluable.”

CARE is a Mount Sinai volunteer program that helps promote mobility and physical activity in patients to improve patient outcomes. Click here to read more.

Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System, told the volunteers: “You’re optimistic, you’re welcoming, and you’re supportive. You are the foundation of the Mount Sinai community. You’re also role models for our students. This year, we also celebrate the first two volunteers who have been accepted to our School of Medicine.”

“Two words come to mind when describing the dedication of the Department of Volunteer Services and our volunteers—partnership and collaboration,” said Claudia Colgan, Vice President of Care Coordination for the Mount Sinai Health System and Vice President of Operations for The Mount Sinai Hospital. “We can always count on them to find new ways to make Mount Sinai a better place for staff and patients.”

Department of Volunteer Services Director Shari Kaplan, LCSW, told the volunteers: “You come after school, before work, and during your vacations and weekends. You come to learn, to share, and to help, and you come with your heart, and for that, and so much more, we celebrate you.”

Read about Creating a “Circle of CARE”

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