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Road to Resilience Episode Seven: Thriving After a Devastating Loss

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Insights

Mount Sinai has released episode seven of the monthly podcast series, Road To Resilience, which details how active coping skills can help you recover from losing a loved one. In this podcast, Rosalind J. Wright, MD, Dean of Translational Biomedical Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, explains how she used this resilience factor to cope with the murder of her brother and how that would shape her renowned career.

“It’s been a fascinating career path that I would have never had the courage to take had it not been for this incredible loss. Often times as I’m working, I’ll light a candle so he’s right here next to me because it’s his career just as much as it is mine,” Dr. Wright says. She hopes that sharing her story will help others cope with the death of a family member or close friend. “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Your life is going to be changed forever, but try to find ways it will be positively changed. The more you can do that and live for the positive and seek the positive in tragedies like that, it’s amazing the good and growth that can come out of it.”

In the episode, Dr. Wright describes the grief she experienced when she lost her brother at the same time she was caring for her newborn daughter and finishing up her residency. She explains how his unexpected death took a toll on the mental and physical health of both her and her family. These challenges led Dr. Wright to become fascinated with how trauma can affect your physical well-being, and she wanted to learn more about this on a scientific level. She then applied active coping skills during this challenging time and made a big decision to switch gears from studying genetics to pursuing a career in public health.

“I started thinking people need to understand how grief can embed itself in the body and change how you are biologically. I wanted to know how it relates to increasing problems like hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and asthma,” Dr. Wright says.

Dr. Wright went on to conduct groundbreaking research focusing on inner-city populations and violence. She discovered living in a high-stress environment can have a direct impact on your immune system and can change your biology to the point where you’re at risk of developing chronic diseases, including asthma. Dr. Wright also researched the health consequences of poverty and stress. She found exposure to more pollution, a lack of nutritious food, and living in housing with mold and rodents can also make you more prone to these diseases. Her work can now pave the way for prevention and solutions.

“This is going to—more than anything in my career in medicine—finally have great impact on reducing the growth in chronic diseases that we’re seeing,” she says. “If we know what your past exposures have been that affect your health and understand it in a comprehensive way, we can start to understand what factors can push you back on a health track. As a clinician this is so exciting, and I hope this will translate into improved health for the next generations.”

The “Road to Resilience” podcast is based on the well-received book Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, co-authored 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. It features thought-provoking insight from renowned experts as they explain the science behind resilience. The work has been so well received the book now has a second edition.

The book identifies 10 resilience factors to help anyone become stronger when facing life’s greatest challenges and they explain how these can be learned at any stage of life. Each podcast episode focuses on different factors including having optimism, a support system, and role models, along with physical and brain fitness. The monthly series features insight from different Mount Sinai experts as they explain the science behind resilience while sharing their personal stories and experiences.

Road to Resilience is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play (link works best in Chrome). New episodes of the series are released on the last Wednesday of each month. You can find more information on the Icahn School of Medicine website or on the Road to Resilience website.

Eighth Episode of Mount Sinai Future You Features Teen With Autism and Implanted Device to Stop Seizures

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Future You

Episode 8 of Mount Sinai Future You features a teen with autism who opted to have a special device implanted on his brain to stop debilitating seizures. Saadi Ghatan, MD, Chair of Neurosurgery at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai St. Luke’s and Director of the Pediatric Neurosurgery Program of the Mount Sinai Health System, and Lara Marcuse, MD, Co-director of the Mount Sinai Epilepsy Program, explain how this implantation can detect electrical activity and normalize brain waves to stop a seizure in its tracks.

Dennis S. Charney, Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in AAMC News: He studied life-changing traumas. Then he faced his own.

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Insights

In a first-person account published online by the Association of American Medical Colleges, 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, describes his journey of survival and a highly publicized recovery after being ambushed by a gunman who had intentionally targeted him. As a physician-scientist who has studied resilience, he also offers a road map for recovery that helped him and could help others.

Read the article

Learn more about Dean Charney’s Road to Resilience podcast

Growing Up with the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Adolescent Health, Community, Featured

“The Adolescent Health Center enabled me to take advantage of opportunities that might have otherwise been out of reach,” says Mary Medina.

In 1949, Mary Medina’s mom came to New York from her native Puerto Rico at nine years old. By the age of 20, she was a single mother of four and was determined to give her children a different life than the one she had had.

So when she heard about the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, she took her kids there for primary care and reproductive health services to make sure they had the care and information that would enable them to get an education and start a career without the challenges of teen pregnancy.

Ms. Medina, who grew up with her mom and three brothers in East Harlem and the Bronx, was 13 at her first visit. It was easy to talk to the health care providers there and ask them questions about sex and contraception.

To her mother’s relief, she succeeded in grammar and high school, and she went to college. That was followed by more achievements: She continued on to graduate school, where she received a Master of Social Work and also a law degree.

Today, Mary Medina, JD, MSW, remembers her introduction to Mount Sinai. “When I was a child, my mom first took us to the pediatric clinic, and then to the Adolescent Health Center. I grew up there,” Ms. Medina says.

Years later, after she completed her training, she learned about a position at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, as it was then known. “It was a no brainer for me to apply,” she says. “It was where I felt I belonged. I’ve always considered Mount Sinai my home.”

Ms. Medina spent more than 16 years working at Mount Sinai, eventually attaining the position of Director of Government Relations. It was a significant step in launching Ms. Medina’s successful 35-year career in health care, which included positions as Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, and Executive Director of the Greater New York Hospital Association. Today, she is a part-time attorney in private practice, serves on the Board of Directors of the Health Care Chaplaincy Network, and is a volunteer end-of-life doula.

Ms. Medina says, “The Adolescent Health Center enabled me to take advantage of opportunities that might have otherwise been out of reach.”

South Nassau Communities Hospital Becomes Mount Sinai’s Flagship Hospital on Long Island

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Featured

From left: Kenneth L. Davis, MD; Joseph J. Fennessy; and Richard J. Murphy announce the partnership at a news conference on Long Island.

South Nassau Communities Hospital and the Mount Sinai Health System have finalized a partnership that will make South Nassau Mount Sinai’s flagship hospital on Long Island and bring advanced-level health care to the South Shore of Nassau County and to Long Island.

The comprehensive agreement has received enthusiastic support of the boards of directors of both institutions and positions Mount Sinai and South Nassau to expand access to innovative approaches in patient care, treatment, and research to the communities of Long Island.

“Our collective goal is to provide the highest quality of care to patients on Long Island,” says Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. Adds Richard J. Murphy, South Nassau’s President and Chief Executive Officer, “Mount Sinai is a world-class institution with a leading medical school, and this affiliation will allow our patients to have access to some of the top physicians and most advanced treatments available. It also will help South Nassau reach the next level in our role as a growing regional medical center.”

As part of the relationship, Mount Sinai will help expand South Nassau’s campus and services, including plans for a new four-story addition in Oceanside with an expanded Emergency Department and new intensive care beds and surgical suites.

“Our affiliation with Mount Sinai provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to combine their comprehensive network of coordinated primary, acute, and specialized health care services, along with the renowned Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, with the health care needs of the communities we serve,” says Joseph J. Fennessy, Chairman of South Nassau’s Board of Directors. “Mount Sinai is about advancing the science of medicine while improving patient outcomes, which is why this is a good fit with South Nassau’s culture. Patients on Long Island should not have to travel to Manhattan for world-class care.”

“Over the past 10 months, we have been working diligently to prepare to combine Mount Sinai’s academic, clinical, and research expertise with South Nassau’s community-based care,” says Arthur Klein, MD, President of the Mount Sinai Health Network. “Already, Mount Sinai specialists are collaborating with physicians at South Nassau to provide more specialized, advanced care. We are also working together to secure important new recruitments. Mount Sinai and South Nassau have received approval for a new allopathic internal medicine residency program to advance the academic mission of South Nassau Communities Hospital and to ensure a dedicated physician workforce. Our vision is to provide seamless, high-quality integrated care to patients.”

South Nassau’s Board of Directors announced its plans with Mount Sinai in January 2018 after having signed a nonbinding letter of intent in May of 2017. Its Board of Directors will be retained and direct the day-to-day operations of the Oceanside campus. The South Nassau and Mount Sinai boards will share representation on each other’s boards, with South Nassau’s Chairman, Mr. Fennessy, serving on the Mount Sinai Executive Committee.

The plan has been approved by the New York State Department of Health, the New York State Attorney General, the New York State Department of Education, and the New York State Office of Mental Health. It has also won the support of local community leaders and elected officials who welcome Mount Sinai to Long Island.

SinaInnovations Celebrates Past and Looks to Future

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Research

Raymond Schinazi, PhD

Scientists whose revolutionary treatments have cured millions of people with hepatitis C and restored sight to patients with a rare form of blindness were among keynote speakers at the seventh annual SinaInnovations conference, held in Stern Auditorium during two consecutive days in October.

Innovation in science and medicine was the theme of this year’s SinaInnovations conference. The event highlighted the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s commitment to groundbreaking research and concluded its yearlong 50th anniversary celebration.

“This conference exemplifies Mount Sinai’s mission to produce the great translational research that improves the lives of our patients through innovation and entrepreneurship,” 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, said as he opened the event.

Katherine A. High, MD

Keynote speaker Raymond Schinazi, PhD, Director of the Center for AIDS Research at the Emory University School of Medicine, spoke about his part in developing an antiviral treatment for hepatitis C that has had a 96 percent cure rate and is considered to be one of the greatest successes in modern medicine. Dr. Schinazi also helped develop TRUVADA for PrEP®, a prophylactic drug that enables people to protect themselves before coming into contact with HIV-1. His next priority, he said, will be developing a cure for hepatitis B, which affects 400 million people worldwide. “We can do this,” Dr. Schinazi said.

Katherine A. High, MD, President of Spark Therapeutics, spoke about development of a gene therapy for hemophilia and the creation of LUXTURNA™, a treatment for a rare form of blindness caused by a defective gene. Spark Therapeutics’ LUXTURNA is now the first gene therapy for an inherited disease to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Commission.

Sri Madabushi, PhD

The conference also featured a session on the promise of data-driven innovation that included Sri Madabushi, PhD, Business Development Director of Google AI Healthcare; and Eric Dishman, Director of the All of Us Research Program of the National Institutes of Health. All of Us is seeking to enroll more than 1 million Americans who will share their personal health data with researchers and clinicians who are advancing precision medicine.

Mr. Dishman said his personal experience is emblematic of the program’s goals. For 23 years, he battled a rare form of kidney cancer, enduring 57 rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. Seven years ago, when he was near death, he had his genome sequenced, and physicians used that data to identify a pancreatic cancer drug that eradicated his disease. “Here I was, a wealthy, college-educated man who knows CEOs and senators, and I barely got access to precision medicine—at the 11th hour. What about everyone else?”

Access to quality health care was the focus of the final session at SinaInnovations. Kelly J. Kelleher, MD, Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Public Health at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, said that years ago, Nationwide became troubled by economic and health care disparities in a nearby neighborhood. “Some of our patients came from one of the areas most affected by violence, homelessness, drug addiction, and infant mortality, and I was offering a little bit of amoxicillin for ear infections,” Dr. Kelleher said. “This was unacceptable.” He said Nationwide has adopted a “neighborhood as patient” philosophy, working to incentivize doctors to keep patients healthy, support efforts to build affordable housing, and create job-training programs in the underserved community.

At the conclusion of SinaInnovations, conference leader Scott L. Friedman, MD, Dean for Therapeutic Discovery and Chief of the Division of Liver Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine, summed up the event’s overarching message of innovation.

“We are a great medical school working to fulfill great ambitions,” he said. “This conference was intended to reflect upon the history of our 50 years as a medical school and project into our future.”

A panel on Caring for the Community Through the Lifespan with, from left: R. Shaun Morrison, MD; Nina A. Bickell, MD; Nathan Goldstein, MD; Elizabeth Howell, MD; John Steever, MD; David Blumenthal, MD; Kelly J. Kelleher, MD; and Angela Diaz, MD, PhD.