Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured
Renowned cancer scientist Ramon E. Parsons, MD, PhD, who has held successive leadership positions within the Mount Sinai Health System since joining in 2013, has been named Director of The Tisch Cancer Institute.
Dr. Parsons replaces Steven J. Burakoff, MD, who has served as the Institute’s Director for the past decade, overseeing a period of significant expansion in cancer research and clinical care. Under Dr. Burakoff, Mount Sinai became a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and opened the Leon and Norma Hess Center for Science and Medicine, which provided expanded research space and outpatient cancer treatment. Dr. Burakoff will now serve as Dean for Cancer Innovation at Mount Sinai.
“A major goal of The Tisch Cancer Institute—which sees 10,000 patients a year—is to become a leader in early disease detection, intervention, and treatment through the development and implementation of diagnostic tools, vaccines, imaging, and immune monitoring,” Dr. Parsons says. “Tisch serves as a bridge to many departments, institutes, and hospitals across the Mount Sinai Health System.” This close association, he adds, enables the Institute to monitor and treat patients early, before their cancers become more aggressive, when their chances are greater for positive outcomes.
“We’re with patients from the beginning, so anything we can do to intervene earlier is going to be a benefit—anything from vaccines to screenings,” Dr. Parsons says.
A strategic plan created in 2016 also calls for Tisch to expand its novel therapeutics program and cancer clinical trials network throughout the Health System to include locations at Mount Sinai Downtown, Mount Sinai West, and later on, Mount Sinai St. Luke’s. The plan also calls for an increased focus on personalized medicine that utilizesthe latest technology in immunology, molecular biology, and genetics. Providing New York City’s diverse communities with greater access to innovative care will enable Mount Sinai to address health care disparities and build upon the strength of its population health programs. Plans call for the establishment of more community-based outcomes research, and behavioral oncology and epidemiology programs that would include smoking cessation, healthy eating, and exercise, as well as a new initiative in global oncology.
“Mount Sinai is committed to improving the quality and research of cancer control, treatment, and early detection,” Dr. Parsons says. “This is a wonderful opportunity to have an impact on our community.”
In addition, Dr. Parsons plans to enhance fellowship training; recruit and train clinical scientists to perform more patient-based research in oncology, pathology, surgery, and radiation oncology; and promote careers in immunotherapy research. Plans to create disease-focused centers of excellence that are funded by federal and collaborative grants and develop predictive genomics and personalized medicine in cancer are also on The Tisch Cancer Institute’s agenda.
Dr. Parsons is a proponent of immune-oncology treatments that help the body harness its immune system to fight off cancerous cells. More than two decades ago, as a research fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Dr. Parsons was involved in developing a test to detect hypermutating cancers. Today, he says, these cancers are proving to be more susceptible to new treatments that use immune checkpoint inhibitors.
“We didn’t know back then that it would be useful in a clinical treatment, and now it is,” Dr. Parsons says. “The test should be given as early as possible in a patient’s diagnosis so we can offer immune checkpoint inhibitors earlier, at the most advantageous point possible during patient treatment. That’s the sort of platform we will be building.”
By taking a thoughtful approach to growth, Dr. Parsons says the Institute will focus on providing the best evidence-based treatments to patients throughout the Health System. “It is important not to overpromise and under-deliver with so much at stake,” he says. “Good science and improved medical care must be done very deliberately and rigorously.”
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured
Samin K. Sharma, MD, left, and Annapoorna S. Kini, MD
For the 19th 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’s exceptional ratings appeared in the NYSDOH’s recently released report on the risk factors associated with PCI at 62 hospitals across New York State from December 1, 2011, through November 30, 2014. The NYSDOH report is designed to help patients make better decisions about their care based upon a statistical review of each hospital’s data. The NYSDOH began publishing PCI safety ratings in 1995. Mount Sinai consistently has the largest number of total cases in New York State.
At Mount Sinai Heart, Samin K. Sharma, MD, and Annapoorna S. Kini, MD, were among only three interventional cardiologists in New York State to be awarded a two-star safety rating in two categories for their significantly lower overall mortality rates over a three-year period, performing a total of 6,280 cases between them, according to the report.
“Our long track record of success in offering the highest level of patient safety and excellence in care now spans 19 years,” says Dr. Sharma, Director of Clinical and Interventional Cardiology at The Mount Sinai Hospital, and Anandi Lal Sharma Professor of Medicine in Cardiology. “At Mount Sinai Heart’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, we put our patients first.”
Adds Dr. Kini, Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, and Zena and Michael A. Wiener Professor of Medicine: “The combination of skilled physicians and a team that delivers high-quality patient care, through the use of innovative and evidence-based medical protocol, has contributed to our extraordinary success.”
During the three-year period, The Mount Sinai Hospital’s risk-adjusted PCI mortality rate for all of its cases—emergency and non-emergency—was 0.75 percent, significantly lower than the statewide average of 1.11 percent and among the top three rates in New York, while performing the largest number of procedures (13,029). For non-emergency cases over that period, Mount Sinai’s PCI mortality rate was 0.44 percent, compared with the statewide average of 0.71 percent, on the highest volume of procedures.
“I could not be any prouder of Dr. Sharma, Dr. Kini, and our Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory team. They are true leaders in the field of interventional cardiology,” says Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Director of Mount Sinai Heart and Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital. “Patient safety and effectiveness continue to drive this team of highly skilled cardiologists to ever greater levels of quality every year.”
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Featured, Patient Stories, Pediatrics
Aiden Schaefer, far right, and his brother, Mason, snuggle with Professor Bunsen Honeydew, Kravis Children’s Hospital’s new full-time employee.
Two-year-old Aiden Schaefer was battling leukemia, with long hospital stays, uncomfortable medical procedures, and time spent away from his twin brother, Mason, when a gentle young service dog, Professor Bunsen Honeydew, began keeping him company as part of a new program at Kravis Children’s Hospital at Mount Sinai. Denise Schaefer says her son Aiden “fell in love instantly” with the friendly golden doodle. Aiden’s experience “was not about the medicine or the doctors, it was about seeing Professor.”
Thanks to an innovative program, Paws & Play, supported by PetSmart Charities® at Kravis Children’s Hospital, the highly trained facility dog is now a full-time employee at Mount Sinai. Kravis launched the program—the first of its kind in New York State—with a grant from PetSmart Charities. Under the direction of handlers Ali Spike, MS, Certified Child Life Specialist, Toshiko Nonaka, MS, Certified Child Life Specialist, and Morgan Stojanowski,
Follow Professor Bunsen Honeydew’s adventures on Instagram.
Child Life Program Assistant Director, Professor works with patients in the Blau Center for Children’s Cancer and Blood Disease, the Alice Gottesman Bayer Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, and inpatient units.
Working in conjunction with the doctors and nurses who care for the physical well-being of patients, Professor provides emotional support. He helps to ease the pain or anxiety that accompanies medical procedures, and long hospitalizations and treatments, while improving the socialization, motivation, and overall temperament of pediatric patients.
“At Kravis, we are surrounded by excellence, great love, and care for families,” says Diane C. Rode, MPS, Child Life Program Director. “This is a magnificent opportunity for us to continue humanizing the health care we provide.”
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Featured
From left: Brian Meade, PE, Senior Project Manager, Planning Design and Construction; Leah Borenstein, RN, MPA, Director, Perioperative Services; and Evan L. Flatow, MD.
As the Mount Sinai Health System evolves to meet New Yorkers’ changing health care needs, Mount Sinai West is completing Phase One of a three-year plan that will vastly expand its surgical capabilities. The initiative, which began in November 2016, will enable an increase in the types and number of complex elective surgical procedures performed at the hospital, especially in the areas of Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, and Head and Neck Cancer.
The project is a key part of the transformation currently under way at the seven hospital campuses across the Health System—all efforts aimed at strengthening Mount Sinai’s ability to better serve patients.
“A large portion of Orthopedics, including hand, shoulder, and elbow surgery, along with some joint replacement and spine surgery, have already moved here from other Health System hospitals, laying the groundwork for making Mount Sinai West a center of excellence for Orthopedics,” says Evan L. Flatow, MD, President, Mount Sinai West. “Next year, we will be adding Head and Neck Cancer, as well as a movement disorders neurosurgical program, which will join the epilepsy and neuroendovascular programs here to make a Neuroscience center of excellence.”
Phase One includes a new 600-square-foot operating room and the expansion of another, the addition of three new post-anesthesia care (PACU) beds, and a completely renovated surgical reception and family waiting area, all scheduled to open in early August. The project also includes the renovation of the West 59th Street hospital entrance and lobby, and upgraded elevators to the surgical reception area.
The new reception area will streamline the surgical check-in process. It includes a bright and spacious waiting area with twice the seating capacity of the previous space, two laptop stations, two big-screen televisions, a quiet area, and two restrooms. Comfortable new seats come with individual electrical outlets for convenient phone charging. Nearby, a new consultation room enables surgeons to meet privately with a patient’s family.
“Our focus is to improve the overall patient experience,” says Leah Borenstein, RN, MPA, Director, Perioperative Services, Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai St. Luke’s. “This really is a show stopper,” she says of the new reception and family waiting area. According to Brian Meade, PE, Senior Project Manager, Planning, Design and Construction, Mount Sinai Health System, Phase Two is scheduled for completion next March, and will include additional operating rooms, a new 3.0 T MRI, and new staff lounges.
Phase Three will add 18 private prep and recovery rooms, and is expected to be ready in October 2018. Phase Four, scheduled for completion in June 2019, will include the addition of four operating rooms and the activation of the new MRI as an intraoperative MRI, which will enable precision neurosurgical imaging in real time during surgery.
Mr. Meade says their goal is to complete the renovation for December 2019, ultimately adding six operating rooms—bringing the total to 22—and doubling the number of PACU beds to 32. Surgical support facilities for staff, upgrades to engineering systems, and an enhanced and expanded endoscopy suite are also part of the overall plan.
“Starting with convenient valet parking and the reception and family waiting area, we are designing our expansion in a patient-centered way,” says Dr. Flatow, “trying to improve the experience for patients and families going through what can be a stressful time.”
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Featured
Emily Rubin, left, co-editor of a new anthology of work from Mount Sinai’s Writing Workshops, with Alison Snow, PhD. Click the image to watch a video about the writing program
There was a standing-room-only crowd at the recent launching of a new book, The Write Treatment Anthology, at Mount Sinai Downtown-Union Square. But it was not just any literary crowd. These were cancer patients and survivors, along with family members, friends, and Mount Sinai Health System staff. After gentle prompting, some of those who were sitting gave up their chairs for those not feeling well enough to stand for very long.
“A sold-out crowd for a literary event,” marveled Emily Rubin, who leads Mount Sinai’s two Writing Workshops, and who was a co-editor of the anthology. The book, published on Amazon.com through grants and crowdfunding, includes essays, short stories, and poems that 23 cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers have written since the workshops formed in 2011. Seventeen excerpts from the book were read at the event held on Thursday, June 15.
“We are so excited about this accomplishment—a published book, filled with the stories of our cancer patients,” said Alison Snow, PhD, LCSW-R, and Assistant Director, Cancer Supportive Services at Mount Sinai Downtown Cancer Centers.
The workshops are held on Mondays at Mount Sinai West and on Wednesdays at Mount Sinai Downtown-Chelsea Center and follow a well-worn, comforting routine: Ms. Rubin brings prompts to spur the imagination, like quotes, cards, or photographs, then participants write for about a half-hour, aiming to create a short finished product.
Connie Perry: ‘‘We writers gather close around the table, buoyed along by our continuing bravery. Not because we have each had our cancer battles, but because we bravely face blank pages again and again.’’
“It’s all inspiration for us to write together,” Ms. Rubin said at the event. “And as we write, the room fills with sighs and groans and laughter, tears, and silences heavy with thought. We think and we write, we imagine and we create, and then we read what we’ve written. The stories and poems bring beauty and light to these dark places where we end up going.”
Since the workshops began, about 300 people have taken part. One group was started by Ms. Rubin after she completed treatments for breast cancer at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, and the other was formed by Susan Ribner, an author who was treated for ovarian cancer at Mount Sinai West. The two started the groups at about the same time entirely by chance, and in an only-in-New-York coincidence, they found that they had met years before—at an aikido dojo in Chelsea. They collaborated on workshops and book readings, and after Ms. Ribner went into hospice care, she asked Ms. Rubin to take over both groups. Ms. Ribner died in 2014, and her spirit was a vibrant presence at the book launch.
One of the book’s authors, former patient Isaac Read, shared his essay “Sue Ribner” at the event: “She was a gracious, very strong woman. Weeks before she died, I called her because I had not heard from the writing class in a while. She told me that she was not teaching the class anymore, but she did not tell me how bad she was. I shared with her a quote about writing that I heard on a TV show. The quote is, ‘Writing is an act of faith, not an act of grammar.’ ”
Sales of the anthology will help fund the Writing Workshops. Copies can be purchased on Amazon.com at http://a.co/babnF9D or at emilyrubin.net.
Jack Robert Nix: ‘‘I am a soldier. I even get tattooed. it is for the bullets. electron. high beam. but I dislike the uniform. a hospital gown.’’
Jacqueline Johnson: ‘‘Whatever it was he was reaching for, he had the appearance of a warrior ready for anything, ready for the future.’’
Updated on Nov 14, 2025 | Community, Engagement, Featured
Diversity leaders Gary C. Butts, MD, and Pamela Y. Abner, MPA
DiversityInc, the nation’s leading publication in advancing excellence in diversity management, has ranked the Mount Sinai Health System No. 1 in the United States in its 2017 “Top 12 Hospitals and Health Systems” list. Mount Sinai improved its national ranking from last year when it was No. 3. In 2016, Mount Sinai also was the publication’s highest-ranked health system for diversity initiatives in the New York City metropolitan area.
Among the best practices that led to Mount Sinai’s special honor this year were its employee resource group participation, manager participation in cross-cultural mentoring, use of an executive diversity leadership board to set goals tied to executive compensation, and a commitment to expanding the supplier diversity initiative. In its top hospitals and health systems rankings, DiversityInc used a 300-question self-assessment survey of multiple diversity criteria, including talent pipeline, talent development, leadership commitment, and supplier diversity.
Situated in one of the most diverse cities in the nation, Mount Sinai is dedicated to ensuring its staff represents the population it serves. An inclusive vision and robust diversity initiatives are spearheaded by Gary C. Butts, MD, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, and Dean for Diversity Programs, Policy and Community Affairs, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The Office for Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) includes Pamela Y. Abner, MPA, Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer; Chief Program Officer Ann-Gel Palermo, Dr.PH, MPH, Associate Dean for Diversity in Biomedicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Barbara Warren, PsyD, Director for LGBT Programs; and Edward Poliandro, EdD, who supports training and education initiatives.
“The more diversity we achieve in our system of care, the better the climate for both patients and staff,” says Dr. Butts. ODI codified 14 areas to tackle in this pursuit, including focusing on patient-centric education and training of staff, engaging and advancing underrepresented groups by expanding the talent pipelines through hospital administrative residencies, and the recruiting, developing, and mentoring of faculty and staff.
“The challenge is how to translate our substantial workforce diversity into something tangible, palpable, and impactful,” Dr. Butts adds. “If we did not allow diverse teams to engage more effectively or if we did not allow for the diversity of our student body to impact learning in the medical school, then we would miss the mark.”
To create and foster an inclusive environment and support the development of a culturally competent workforce, ODI provides education and training to staff, faculty, and students on topics such as unconscious bias; racism and bias in medicine; best practices in LGBT-competent care; and enhancing the transgender patient experience and patient care. The Health System also fosters student-led advocacy groups to develop social consciousness. Members of the
ODI team regularly engage with employees—from department heads to front-line staff—to ensure they include a variety of perspectives.
“We have the focus, intention, and goodwill of people at Mount Sinai,” says Ms. Abner. This is supported by hospital presidents, deans, and other senior leadership who participate in and chair diversity councils. “Leadership has endorsed our work and that is essential.”
The ODI team continues to incorporate more inclusive initiatives into the Health System, including increased accessibility for disabled employees and a commitment to maintaining supplier diversity, particularly local businesses run by women and minorities.
“Organizations that are committed to diversity and inclusion have to work with suppliers who support those populations,” says Ms. Abner. Through the relationship, Mount Sinai will educate vendors on the particularities of working with larger corporations, providing a level of education that may further enhance the company’s future and potentially build community wealth.
“We are not perfect, but we are ahead of the field,” says Ms. Abner, who acknowledges that Mount Sinai still has areas for improvement. She would like to see more diverse representation among senior leadership and within board membership.
“We need to continue to do the good work, articulate that well, and maintain our vision,” says Dr. Butts. “There is more work to be done, without a doubt. We need to look at the gaps that need to be filled and close them. We are in a great position to do that.”
