New Institute Aims to Advance Science of Women’s Health

Sep 11, 2017 | Featured, Research

Elizabeth A. Howell, MD, MPP, Director of the new Women’s Health Research Institute, right, with Michael Brodman, MD, and Annetine C. Gelijns, PhD, JD.

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has created the Women’s Health Research Institute, with the mission of advancing science in women’s health. The Director of the Institute is a nationally recognized physician-scientist, Elizabeth A. Howell, MD, MPP, System Vice Chair of Research and Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science, and Professor of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

“Developing a rigorous research program in women’s health is an essential component of the strategic plan of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and a natural complement to Mount Sinai’s rapidly growing clinical services and fellowship training programs in this area,” says Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs, Director, The Friedman Brain Institute, and Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience.

Dr. Howell laid the groundwork for the Institute with the close collaboration of Michael Brodman, MD, Ellen and Howard C. Katz Chair and Professor, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science; and Annetine C. Gelijns, PhD, JD, Chair and Edmond A. Guggenheim Professor, Population Health Science and Policy. The two departments are co-sponsors of the new interdisciplinary Institute.

“I think that now is a great time for women’s health research,” says Dr. Howell. “You see a lot of clinical centers of care for women, but you do not see many that are focused on the science of women’s health.”

Two Centers of Excellence will provide the initial platform for achieving the Institute’s goals:

  • The Center for Outcomes and Quality Research in Women’s Health

With particular attention to underserved populations, the Center will build upon Mount Sinai’s strong research portfolio on quality of care and outcomes, with a focus on developing and evaluating interventions to improve women’s health and wellness.

  • The Center for Early Translational Research in Women’s Health

Drawing on the expertise of multiple departments, institutes, and programs, the Center will develop tools and core resources for translational research in genetics and immunology and build new diagnostic and treatment techniques for gynecologic cancers and other conditions in women’s health.

“The idea is that the same topic areas can be studied at both centers,” Dr. Howell says. “Looking at cervical cancer, for example, you can address screening, treatment practices, and patterns in health services. At the same time, you could be doing advanced work on tumor immunology and trying to find ways to diagnose it earlier and treat it more effectively. The centers will be very integrated, but you need both.”

The Institute is now seeking a director for the Center for Early Translational Research and recruiting senior and junior faculty members with expertise in women’s health, health services research, cancer research, and other complementary fields.  The Institute also hopes to establish the Women’s Health Scholars Program, recruiting residents and fellows to spend an additional year learning research methodology for a career in women’s health.

Dr. Howell sees strong potential for working with the centers across the institution, and she is already working closely with Stephanie V. Blank, MD, Director of Women’s Health at Mount Sinai Chelsea.  Dr. Blank will be the clinical lead for the Center for Early Translational Research in Women’s Health, and because she treats many patients with gynecologic cancer, “she will be one of the key people who can bring both our questions and our learning to the bedside,” Dr. Howell says.  Drs. Blank and Howell aim to build a strong ovarian cancer research program as part of this effort.

The Institute is also expanding and building on Dr. Howell’s work. Supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, she leads research concerning maternal depression, outcomes for very low birth-weight babies, and the effect of hospital quality on severe complications and death in childbirth, which are persistently higher for black women and other ethnic minorities, compared with white women.

In a 2016 study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Dr. Howell’s team looked at 353,773 deliveries in 40 New York City hospitals from 2011 through 2013, and found that some of hospitals had rates of serious complications as low as 1 percent, while others had rates up to 6 percent. The study also found that 65 percent of white women delivered at hospitals with the lowest number of complications, and only 23 percent of black women did. “We need to figure out how to address these disparities, and why some hospitals are doing so much better than others,” Dr. Howell says.

“I am very interested in quality of care in general and how we measure it, how we improve it. Those kinds of issues—particularly in maternal and child health—resonate for me,” Dr. Howell says. The interest was present in her earliest days as at Harvard Medical School, when she had a neonatal rotation, caring for infants who were “so small and fragile” and who faced a lifetime of potential complications. Looking at the bigger picture, she also earned a master’s degree in Public Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, writing her thesis on infant mortality.

“I always knew that I love patient care,” Dr. Howell says, “but I also knew that I wanted to have a broader impact if I could.”

 

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Healthy Dialogues at the 2017 Aspen Ideas Festival

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Community, Featured

Kenneth L. Davis, MD, right, in blue, leads a luncheon roundtable discussion on the future of medicine and medical care.

Clear blue skies and fresh mountain air set the stage for the 2017 Aspen Ideas Festival, which ran from Thursday, June 22, through Saturday, July 1. Presented by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic magazine, the annual festival in Aspen, Colorado, is a gathering place where thought leaders across many disciplines engage in a robust exchange of ideas.

Experts from the Mount Sinai Health System participated in discussions that offered the latest information on the future of medicine, the power of good health, today’s opioid epidemic, ways to grow a global health workforce, the intersection between climate change and health, and the aging brain. These discussions drew more than one million social media impressions. As in years past, Mount Sinai provided attendees with complimentary health screenings in its Health Concourse. Dermatologists from Mount Sinai’s Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology performed 748 free skin cancer screenings and identified 35 possible melanomas, 13 basal cell carcinomas, and 2 squamous cell carcinomas. Nurses from Mount Sinai Heart performed 571 complimentary blood pressure and cholesterol screenings.

Mount Sinai offers free health screenings to Festival participants.

At this year’s festival, Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, addressed the future of medicine and provided a glimpse into next-generation health care. “Automated diagnostics are going to change medicine over the next 25 years in ways we can’t even conceptualize,” said Dr. Davis. He discussed a scenario where mobile phone apps would be used to collect personalized health data that is sent to the patient’s electronic health records. Using smart technology, this information would then generate a diagnosis and outline a treatment for the patient.

In a talk called “The Power of Good Health,” Mount Sinai experts discussed how nutrition, sleep, and the environment affect wellbeing. Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Director of Mount Sinai Heart and Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital, said the risk factors that contribute to heart disease— high cholesterol, poor eating habits, lack of exercise, obesity, high blood pressure, smoking, and diabetes—can all be prevented or reduced with lifestyle or behavior modification. Yasmin Hurd, PhD, Director of the Addiction Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Pharmacological Sciences, addressed the opioid epidemic. She explained that addiction can occur quickly because opioids “get into the brain very quickly.” Some people are so susceptible that three days of exposure is all they need to become hooked. “Genetics play an important role,” Dr. Hurd said, but more information is needed to fully understand the mechanisms behind addiction. Now that greater attention is being paid to this illness, she added, large-scale studies are under way that “will be able to give us better information about who is at risk.

 

Mount Sinai luminaries participate in a talk about The Power of Good Health.

From left, Kenneth L. Davis, MD; Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD; David M. Rapoport, MD; and Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc.

Yasmin Hurd, PhD, discusses the science of addiction.

Yasmin Hurd, PhD, pictured second from left, in the panel, Deep Dive: The Opioid Tsunami.

Prabhjot Singh, MD, PhD, addresses the worldwide shortage of health professionals.

Prabhjot Singh, MD, PhD, left, in the panel, “Deep Dive: Growing a Global Health Workforce.”

Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, Dean for Global Health, and Professor of Environmental Medicine, Public Health, and Pediatrics, told attendees that “clean air and safe drinking water are critical for children’s health,” along with the elimination of environmental hazards http://www.mountsinai.org/profiles/philip-j-landrigansuch as lead and pesticides. He said eating organic food can lower someone’s risk of ingesting pesticides by 90 percent. David M. Rapoport, MD, Director of the Sleep Medicine Research Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said, “The average amount of sleep needed is seven to eight hours per night, but that varies a great deal.” The best way to tell if someone is getting enough sleep is to see if he or she feels rested in the morning.

Robert Wright, MD, MPH

According to Robert Wright, MD, MPH, Chair of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, and Professor of Pediatrics, the Earth’s changing climate—with more extreme droughts, flooding, rising temperatures, and air pollution—will lead to increased infections, heat stress, heart attacks, and other impacts on human health, with the most severe consequences affecting the elderly and the very young. “There is a lot about climate and health we don’t know,” Dr. Wright said. “We need better surveillance and satellite systems, and we need to start tracking the impact on health in order to make better predictions, and thereby, employ our resources more wisely, as these effects now seem inevitable.”

Samuel Gandy, MD, PhD

Prabhjot Singh, MD, PhD, Director of The Arnhold Institute for Global Health and Chair of the Department of Health System Design and Global Health, discussed how Mount Sinai is deploying machine learning and technology in its Atlas project, which combines data from satellite images with field-based insights to address health inequities in undercounted and underserved communities. The Atlas platform, being used in Guatemala and Harlem, is the “start of a journey,” he said. “It will allow us to push actionable, real-time insights to frontline workers who build trust within communities and optimize health system effectiveness.”

Samuel Gandy, MD, PhD, Director of the Center for Cognitive Health and Professor of Neurology, and Psychology, told attendees that Alzheimer’s disease research now includes the development of medication that can prevent inflammation in the brain, as well as the tangles that occur within dying nerve cells. “We are working on a cocktail of drugs and vaccines, some that prevent inflammation, some that reduce tangle formation, and some that, hopefully, arrest both inflammation and the tangle formation,” he said.

The Mount Sinai Hospital Is Among Best in Nation

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured

The Mount Sinai Hospital has been ranked No. 18 out of more than 4,500 hospitals across the nation in the just-released 2017–2018 U.S. News & World Report “Best Hospitals” guidebook, making it one of only 20 institutions to be named to the “Honor Roll.” This is a special recognition that signifies the Hospital earned top rankings in select complex specialty care areas—and additional high marks in seven common procedures and conditions—all of which helped secure Mount Sinai’s position as the No. 2 hospital in New York City and the metropolitan area.

Four Mount Sinai specialty areas are ranked in the Top 10:

  • Geriatrics, No. 3
  • Gastroenterology & GI Surgery, No. 8
  • Cardiology & Heart Surgery, No. 9
  • Nephrology, No. 10.

Also ranked are: Neurology & Neurosurgery (No. 16), Diabetes & Endocrinology (No. 19), Gynecology (No. 23), Cancer (No. 44), Orthopaedics (No. 44), and Urology (No. 48). This year marks great progress for Nephrology, which reached the Top 10 for the first time, and Gynecology, which returned to the rankings. The Hospital is also ranked “high performing” in two areas—Pulmonology and Psychiatry.

“The passion of our faculty and staff—along with a commitment to innovation, collaboration, and individualized patient care—has made this recognition possible,” says Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Mount Sinai Health System. “We are extremely proud to be on the Honor Roll and among the nation’s best centers.”

Separately, the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked nationally in two specialties: No. 12 in Ophthalmology and No. 50 in Ear, Nose & Throat.

“Mount Sinai continues to push the boundaries of scientific discoveries as we improve methods of diagnosing and treating human disease, allowing our exceptional physicians and staff to provide high-quality care for our diverse communities,” 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.

Overall, U.S. News ranks the nation’s top 50 hospitals in 16 areas of complex care, which is driven predominantly by objective data, such as mortality rates for particularly challenging patients, and patient safety and other measures. Also factored in are the responses from the three most recent years of an annual reputational survey of physicians who are asked to name up to five hospitals they consider the best for difficult cases in their specialty. According to U.S. News, specialty rankings are intended for patients with a life-threatening or rare condition who need a hospital that excels in treating complex, high-acuity cases.

U.S. News additionally evaluates how well a hospital performs in a number of specific procedures and conditions for all patients treated—not just for the complex cases. Here, it assesses each hospital’s risk-adjusted outcomes, such as 30-day mortality rates, 7-day readmissions, and length of stay, as well as other variables linked to higher quality, including volume and nurse staffing. The Hospital is rated significantly better than the national average in colon cancer surgery, lung cancer surgery, heart bypass surgery, aortic valve surgery, abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, and treatment for heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“Being recognized among the nation’s best hospitals truly reflects the innovation and quality care that Mount Sinai provides,” says David L. Reich, MD, President and Chief Operating Officer, The Mount Sinai Hospital.

 

The Tisch Cancer Institute Names New Director

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.”

Two Physicians at Mount Sinai’s Cardiac Catheterization Lab Receive Top Safety Rating

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.”

A Full-Time Canine Companion Joins Mount Sinai

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.”