How Do I Know if I Could Have Celiac Disease?

Sep 20, 2023 | Featured, Your Health

Celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder affecting the small intestine, is normally a condition you inherit and runs in families. The condition affects approximately 1 percent of people in the United States and is triggered by consuming gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye.

The small intestine, which is responsible for absorbing nutrients from food, is damaged by this immune process, and this can lead to other health concerns. People with celiac disease are at increased risk for malnutrition, osteoporosis, small bowel cancers, depression, and infertility. Yet only about 30 percent of people with celiac disease are properly diagnosed, according to the Celiac Disease Foundation.

To schedule an appointment with Christopher Cao, MD, a celiac disease specialist, call 212-241-4299 or schedule online.

In this Q&A, Christopher Cao, MD, Assistant Professor, Gastroenterology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who treats patients and conducts research on celiac disease, explains how to know if you have this condition and how to optimize your diet and improve your quality of life.

How do I know if should screen for celiac disease? What screenings are available? 

Celiac disease may produce various gastrointestinal and systemic symptoms. Common gastrointestinal symptoms include abdominal discomfort, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, and nausea or vomiting. You may also experience a skin rash, joint pains, fatigue, or weight loss. As celiac disease is hereditary, it is important that family members of individuals with celiac disease be screened. Individuals with known autoimmune disorders should also be screened for celiac disease. Screening for celiac disease uses a combination of blood work, genetic testing, and endoscopic evaluation. These services are offered through the Mount Sinai Celiac Disease Program.

What foods should I eat or avoid if I have celiac disease?

The only effective treatment for celiac disease is a strict gluten-free diet, as there are no medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the management of celiac disease. By eliminating gluten from their diet, individuals with celiac disease can prevent further damage to their small intestine and alleviate their symptoms. Dieticians specializing in celiac disease will work closely with patients to develop personalized gluten-free dietary plans to ensure optimal health and well-being.

How do I prevent a flare up? 

The lifelong management of celiac disease with a gluten-free diet can be difficult and should not be understated, as even tiny traces of gluten may trigger a reaction. The Mount Sinai Celiac Disease Center is dedicated in providing comprehensive and compassionate care for those with celiac disease. Our team consists of experienced gastroenterologists, dietitians, and health care professionals who can help support individuals through their celiac journey—from obtaining an accurate diagnosis to optimizing a gluten-free diet and improving their quality of life.

Find out more about celiac disease and what foods to eat

After a Summer on Capitol Hill, a Mount Sinai Medical Student Draws Attention to the Need for Changes to Medicare and Medicaid to Help Vulnerable Populations

Updated on Sep 22, 2023 | Community, Featured, School

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, MD, (R-LA), left, and Mount Sinai medical student Sunjay Letchuman

With the annual Medicare open enrollment period approaching, Mount Sinai medical student Sunjay Letchuman (class of 2026) and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, MD, (R-LA) have come together to shine a light on a vulnerable population of Americans who are poor, elderly, and sometimes disabled. This group of more than 12 million Americans is so called “dually eligible” because they qualify for insurance through both Medicare and Medicaid.

Having two forms of insurance might seem to be better than one. But data reveal that dually eligible individuals experience worse health outcomes when compared to similar populations, even after controlling for confounding variables. These poor health outcomes result, in part, from the lack of payment coordination between Medicare and Medicaid.

“Medicare pays for most hospital services while Medicaid pays for long-term care services, such as nursing home care,” says Mr. Letchuman. “Without payment coordination between the two insurers, Medicaid does not know that a dually eligible patient is hospitalized unless subsequent long-term care is needed. As such, Medicaid has no financial incentive to prevent the hospitalization in the first place in light of Medicare’s responsibility to pay. This is just one illustration of how poor coordination is not serving these patients, who experience longer hospitalizations and higher costs.”

This summer, Mr. Letchuman, raised in Louisiana, had the unique opportunity to research this policy issue while serving as a Health Fellow for Dr. Cassidy. While working together, Dr. Cassidy suggested they co-author an article to draw attention to the problem. The result: a Viewpoint essay published in JAMA September 15 titled, “A Prescription for Americans Dually Eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.”

“It was a pleasure to co-author this piece with my health fellow, medical colleague, and Shreveport, Louisiana, native Sunjay Letchuman,” says Dr. Cassidy. “Dually eligible patients have poor outcomes, despite society devoting significant resources to pay for their care. Sunjay spent his time as a health fellow learning this issue and, as importantly, using this understanding to help develop solutions. He is a health scholar serving patients, profession, and country by other means. This editorial is a manifestation and furtherance of this service.”

Mount Sinai medical student Sunjay Letchuman with a patient

In their JAMA article, the pair conclude that the federal government should establish guidelines requiring care to be coordinated between Medicare and Medicaid at the state level. Dr. Cassidy is part of a bipartisan group of six senators working to get this done. The issue is of particular relevance to New York as the state is home to a high number of dually eligible Americans, as is the case in the two authors’ home state.

“Addressing the needs of dually eligible Americans is more than just a policy interest of mine; it’s a commitment to serve my home state of Louisiana where more than 250,000 dually eligible Americans live and deserve better coordinated care and improved health outcomes,” says Dr. Letchuman.

This was not Mr. Letchuman’s first deep dive into a health policy issue. Over the summer, he also co-authored an article in the New England Journal of Medicine about whether nonprofit hospitals deserve their tax exemptions—an issue he worked on as a health fellow for the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means.

“In exchange for not paying taxes, nonprofit hospitals are required to provide substantial community benefit and charity care. Not all nonprofit hospitals fulfill this commitment, and local communities pay the price,” he says.

Mr. Letchuman studied the business of health care as an undergraduate, which has helped prepare him for a career in both medicine and health policy. This made him a perfect candidate for the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s FlexMed program, which encourages college sophomores in any major to apply and provides students with the flexibility to pursue their academic passions during college. Mount Sinai was the first medical school to create an admissions pathway that provides such early assurance.

“The FlexMed program allowed me to pursue my health policy dreams early in college,” he says. “I am confident that Mount Sinai’s education and support, then and now, are shaping me into a more effective physician and policymaker.”

Read more about the Donald and Vera Blinken FlexMed Program

New Mount Sinai-Harlem Health Center Opens, Providing Quality Outpatient Primary and Specialty Care, and Behavioral Health

Updated on Sep 29, 2023 | Community, Featured

The Mount Sinai Health System has expanded its presence in Upper Manhattan with the opening of the new Mount Sinai-Harlem Health Center, a state-of-the-art outpatient medical facility that brings the highest quality health care to the community. The 12-story, 85,000-square-foot medical building, completed at a cost of $80 million, will be home to primary care and specialty practices for adults and children, and will also offer dentistry, mental health services, imaging, and a specialty pharmacy.

A multispecialty practice, scheduled to open on the first floor in 2024, will be staffed by board certified physicians offering primary care and a wide range of specialties, including Cardiology (heart), Gastroenterology (digestive diseases), Nephrology (kidneys), Ophthalmology (eye care), Orthopedics (bones), and Podiatry (feet), initially. Mental health services for adults and children will also be available when the behavioral health clinics, currently located at Mount Sinai Morningside, move to the new building.

The new Health Center will also be home to Mount Sinai’s Institute for Advanced Medicine (IAM), a service dedicated to providing comprehensive, compassionate care to underserved communities and patients with specialized needs.

The first office to open in the new space is IAM’s Jack Martin and Morningside Clinics, which are moving from The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Morningside. The new location will centralize the two practices as the new Jack Martin Fund Center. The Center provides primary and specialized care to patients who are HIV positive and those at high risk for developing HIV or other sexually transmitted infections. In addition to maintaining the same services and care team, the new, state-of-the-art center will provide patients with direct access to one health care destination that offers services including acupuncture; dentistry; dermatology; gynecology; HIV care; massage therapy; mental health; nephrology; neurology (nervous system, including brain); nutrition; pain management; pediatrics; and care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, asexual, and intersex people.

A radiology suite offering X-ray and ultrasound imaging, as well as bone density testing, will open in 2024. A new specialty pharmacy, also slated to open in 2024, will be available to patients as well as members of the surrounding community.

Mount Sinai-Harlem Health will also be home to the Diversity Innovation Hub, a partnership through Mount Sinai’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Founded in 2019, the unique community-driven incubator strives to eliminate disparities in health care and to provide economic opportunity to the community through technological innovation and entrepreneurship.

“Our goal for Mount Sinai-Harlem Health is to bring increased access for much-needed specialty care to the community,” says Berthe Erisnor, MBA, Vice President, Ambulatory Services, Mount Sinai Morningside. “This beautiful, state-of-the-art facility gives us the ability to offer comprehensive services and advanced medical technology closer to the patients we serve. Expanding the community’s access to both primary and specialty care is something that we take very seriously.”

Mount Sinai’s Commitment to Upper Manhattan

Mount Sinai’s $80-million investment in the Mount Sinai-Harlem Health Center is part of its broad commitment to providing inclusive, equitable, high-quality medical care and cutting-edge technology to all the communities it serves, including the residents of Upper Manhattan.

In 2022, Mount Sinai relocated its nursing school to East Harlem. The Phillips School of Nursing (PSON), located at 148 East 126th Street, provides a diverse student body with a progressive curriculum combining effective classroom teaching with clinical practice. PSON is dedicated to engaging its Upper Manhattan neighbors through community-based programs facilitated by its students and has established a partnership with the DREAM Charter School in East Harlem to expose students in grades K-12 to careers in health care.

In 2019, Mount Sinai opened the New York Proton Center (NYPC), the region’s foremost destination for proton and radiation therapy to treat cancer. Located at 225 East 126 Street, NYPC was created in partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Montefiore Medical Center.

Mount Sinai Doctors-West 147th Street, a long-established and highly regarded primary care practice, is located at 2771 Frederick Douglass Boulevard at 147th Street in the heart of Harlem. Board-certified medical doctors representing the diversity of the community provide a wide range of health care services and access to all the resources of Mount Sinai Morningside.

“Mount Sinai has a long and proud history of serving the Upper Manhattan community, and our new Mount Sinai-Harlem Health Center is the latest in our ongoing commitment to deliver world-class care, resources, and services to where the community lives and works,” said Kelly Cassano, DO, Chief Executive Officer, Mount Sinai Doctors Faculty Practice; Dean for Clinical Affairs, Icahn Mount Sinai; and Senior Vice President for Ambulatory Operations, Mount Sinai Health System. 

Mount Sinai-Harlem Health Center is located at 158 West 124th Street, between Adam Clayton Powell and Malcolm X boulevards.

Learn more about the Mount Sinai - Harlem Health Center

With Each White Coat Ceremony, a Renewed Commitment to Advancing Diversity

Updated on Sep 21, 2023 | Featured, School

The class of 2027 was seated at the Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, September 12, waiting to be coated in the White Coat Ceremony, which marks the start of their medical education. Dennis Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, came up on stage and addressed the audience. He spoke about his own time in medical school.

Dennis Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, stressing the importance of a diverse student body at the White Coat Ceremony.

“Back then, medicine lacked so many of the tools we rely upon today,” Dr. Charney said. There was no sophisticated imaging equipment, nor things like DNA sequencing, but the medical field did its best to heal patients. “The world was a different place in 1973,” Dr. Charney said.

Medical science has made many breakthroughs—with Mount Sinai having played a significant role—and it faces exciting new chapters ahead. Some of these, Dr. Charney said, include integration of artificial intelligence and advanced genomics, allowing for better targeted interventions, and perhaps even for once-hard-to-treat cancers to become manageable chronic diseases. That is why the Health System has launched the Mount Sinai Million Health Discoveries Program—to usher in a new era of personalized medicine, he added.

And while science improves, so too must the field for those who work in it, and for whom it serves. Dr. Charney then pulled up a picture of himself in his class at Penn State College of Medicine. “Of 82 students, we had just 12 women and only four people of color,” Dr. Charney said. Then he showed a picture of the 120 students who comprised the cohort present in the hall. “The world has clearly changed for the better—your class is more than 50 percent women and 30 percent people of color,” he noted.

Of this year’s entering class, 53 percent are women, and 28 percent are from backgrounds considered underrepresented in medicine, including racial and economic groups. In comparison with the class that graduated 50 years ago, while race and ethnicity data was not collected back then, the class of 1977 at Icahn Mount Sinai had 24 percent women out of 91 students.

“In spite of the recent Supreme Court decision on college admissions, future classes here at Icahn Mount Sinai will continue to be highly diverse,” Dr. Charney said. “Icahn Mount Sinai will not stand down from our strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. And we will do this legally, under the law.”

The message of diversity resonated with the incoming students. “From my experience, having a diverse body is the only way to go forward as a school, as it then provides a diversity of opinion,” said Nathan Ji, Class of 2027.

“It’s very important to have representations of patients who look like them, from the physicians who treat them,” said Rico Pesce, Class of 2027. “I’m super proud to be part of a school that places importance on this.”

Click to read more about some of the students from the Class of 2027 and the journey they have taken.

Nathan Ji

What drew you to Icahn Mount Sinai?

I first came to hear of Icahn Mount Sinai through friends at Johns Hopkins, where I went for undergrad, who had gotten in through Mount Sinai’s unique FlexMed program. As someone still far removed from the medical school application process back then, I casually asked them why they had elected to commit to Mount Sinai. Their responses varied, of course, but one central theme stuck out: the commitment of the medical school to serving the community.

I remained curious but mildly doubtful of the claim, until I ended up visiting the medical school during Second Visit Weekend this past spring. It was then that I realized the distinct difference between an “East Harlem medical campus” and a “medical campus located in East Harlem.” Icahn Mount Sinai embodied the spirit of the former.

From the several medical student-run community clinics to anti-racism initiatives led by faculty physicians, it was clear that Mount Sinai cared about the community. There is still much more work to be done, of course, but Mount Sinai’s self-awareness of its responsibilities to the people in its vicinity is seldom found among its peers.

It is no coincidence that such a socially conscious school would have such a positive impact on mental health and wellness among its student body. I may not have the same support system from home, but, no matter what background you come from, there will be support for you here, I guarantee it.

What made you decide to enter medicine?

Growing up, I always thought I would become a scientist. Such was the ambitions of a lonely boy growing up in China, whose parents were thousands of kilometers away working in exciting research laboratories to change the world. I never saw myself as being sociable enough to be the “physician-type,” given my introverted personality and upbringing as an only child and perpetual new kid in school.

But that all began to change in 2015 when I returned to China with my parents for the first time since we had left when I was still a child. A sudden trip in the middle of October was no leisurely vacation; we arrived just after midnight at the ICU where my grandfather lay on his deathbed. It was there that I saw the uniquely humanistic challenges that medical professionals dealt with on a regular basis.

We, the family, consulted with the attending physicians on the ethics of pulling the plug to lay my grandfather to rest. All the while around us in the dead of night lay several other elderly patients, each with their own families and individual stories. I realized then that physicians weren’t just sociable professionals who leveraged knowledge of science to help people. Above all, they were care providers who embarked on distinctive humanistic journeys with each of their patients.

The rest, as they say, was history. Sure, there were still seven more years of high school, research internships, undergraduate classes, volunteering and exposure to medical settings, shadowing physicians, tutoring students in underprivileged backgrounds, and a million more exciting adventures along the way. But as I embark on my first medical school classes this fall, I distinctively remember that dark desolate night in Shanghai, as the spark that lit my passion for medicine.

What’s an interesting fact about you?

During orientation I would ask my classmates to guess how many schools I have attended before Icahn Mount Sinai. Most guessed four or five, as is the common pathway—elementary, middle, high schools, and university. Others guessed between six and eight. Yet all would be surprised at my eventual answer of eleven.

I lived in Shanghai, where I was born, for a whopping four months, before I was sent to live with my grandparents in Tianjin, near Beijing. Thus, I had no memories of being with my parents until we reunited when I immigrated to the United States and arrived in Chicago at the age of eight. Two years later, we would move to Salt Lake City, and then to Tampa six years after that. And then I would go to Johns Hopkins University just two years afterward.

Looking back, what really stood out about my unique upbringing is the diversity of culture that I experienced. There were so many ways of living, so many unique compositions of heritage among the people who I called my friends and neighbors throughout the various locations. That is why I want to pursue medicine in a melting pot like New York, where I can encounter people, patients, and colleagues from all walks of life.

Michael Lemonick

What drew you to Icahn Mount Sinai?

I was initially drawn to Mount Sinai as it is one of the most veteran-friendly medical schools in the nation. I am a veteran of the U.S. Navy, having served eight years on active duty as a surface warfare officer, and Mount Sinai’s institutional partnership program with the military allowed me to apply directly to medical school while still serving on active duty.

In fact, I actually completed my application while deployed on an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer during the height of the pandemic. Without Mount Sinai’s veteran-friendly policies, I am not sure that I ever would have been able to realize my dream of becoming a doctor, and for that I feel enormously indebted to Mount Sinai. I am also drawn to Mount Sinai’s emphasis on equitable care and leadership in addition to its standards of scientific excellence.

What made you decide to enter medicine?

As a child, I had the opportunity to witness physicians treat my family and literally save their lives: my mother and both of my grandmothers suffered from breast cancer, while my father and paternal grandfather both suffered from prostate cancer. My sister is a type 1 diabetic who, with the help of spectacular physicians, has worked hard since her diagnosis at six years old to manage her disease.

As an athlete, I suffered broken bones and other sports-related injuries throughout my childhood, teenage, and college years, and each time I was met by competent, confident, and compassionate physicians who were always able to quell my anxieties.

Inspired by those who treated my family members and me in times of need, I knew that I always wanted to become a dependable physician; one who can deliver excellent care while imbuing patients with the confidence and strength to overcome their ailments. With this experience, and with my love of science, a career in medicine always seemed an obvious choice for me.

What’s an interesting fact about you?

I am a 2015 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and I subsequently served on active duty for eight years. From 2018-2021, I was stationed in Rota, Spain, onboard a destroyer, where I served as the lead navigator on three of five deployments. I was the first navigator to make a port call in the Faroe Islands of Denmark, and I was part of a group of ships to navigate along the north coast of Russia in the Barents Sea for the first time since the Cold War.

As an athlete, I played on the varsity soccer team at the Naval Academy. I am still passionate about soccer and athletics in general, especially from the perspective of using sports as a vehicle for developing leadership, toughness, and the will to win.

I am an aspiring writer and am currently working on a memoir of my time at sea in the Navy. Finally, I lived in France for two years as an ensign in the Navy, where I completed a bilingual master’s degree in international affairs at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. I work to maintain my level of French and enjoy learning about various aspects of French culture, including its cuisine, art, and history.

Boluwatito Oladeinde

What drew you to Icahn Mount Sinai?

Its unique position on the borders of the richest and poorest ZIP codes in New York City would expose me to a variety of patient cases and interactions.

I also appreciate that it is in the northeast United States, where I have my adopted family and friends, which would be integral for me to get through the mental and physical rigors of medical school. New York City was also appealing to me as I am interested in fashion and art—what better place to experience and participate in this than in NYC?

What made you decide to enter medicine?

My choice stems from my childhood experiences growing up in Nigeria, and as an uninsured adult in the United States. My father constantly struggled with his health growing up, and between the ages of 12 and 14, he underwent four separate neurosurgery procedures in India and in the United States. This was scary because, as a family, we never knew how these surgeries were going to pan out. This was the first thing that prompted my desire for a career in medicine.

Over the course of my 18 years in Nigeria, I also witnessed the poor health care system in the country and suffered a loss due to an avoidable occurrence in the system. This further strengthened my desire to provide quality health care to my home country, and other disadvantaged communities around me.

What’s an interesting fact about you?

I was born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, and migrated by myself to the United States at the age of 18 for college at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Looking back, it is astounding how I have successfully navigated being in a new country, culture, and system without the presence of my immediate family, who all live in Nigeria. My parents made the trip to the United States for my White Coat Ceremony and were very proud of me for being the first person in my family to go to college and medical school.

Rico Pesce

What drew you to Icahn Mount Sinai?

After the military, I did my undergraduate studies at Columbia University. There, I met a person doing post-baccalaureate studies, who did the Institutional Partnership program with Mount Sinai. When he started at Mount Sinai, he introduced me to its culture and the school.

The school’s mission and focus on developing cutting-edge technologies aligned well with my personal goals. Furthermore, every person I had talked to had nothing but positive things to say. I also love being in New York City, and Mount Sinai is certainly one of the most welcoming institutions I’ve come across.

What made you decide to enter medicine?

My interest in medicine began in high school, where for a biology class, we went to a cadaver lab. I became fascinated with the anatomy and science of the human body. Later on, I became a certified nurse assistant and worked in a dementia facility, and decided to go to school in a community college to further my career. However, I wasn’t thriving academically, left community college, and joined the military.

I became a special operations combat medic for the 75th Ranger Regiment. I ended up staying in the military for seven years, where I had been platoon medic, senior medic, battalion clinic manager, and completed five deployments in Afghanistan.

I have treated patients at their most vulnerable—even their last moments on earth—and there is not a more meaningful way to spend my time in this world than to be part of a team to help improve and prolong people’s human experience. Once I saw the impact on my patients’ lives as a medic, it drew me to want to learn more about medicine and be able to provide care in a definitive way. I then decided it was time to separate from the military to pursue my goal of becoming a physician.

Throughout my education and experience providing care on the front lines of the pandemic, I realized that the responsibilities of a physician went well beyond the one-on-one contact with patients. Physicians have such immense responsibility to their patients, and to society at a larger scale, and I have updated the vision for my future to include medical device innovation. It has been a long journey, but I am proud to continue down the path of being in medicine and advancing the field.

What’s an interesting fact about you?

I am a proud member of the gay community and my fiancé, Zach Thomas, is a third-year medical student at a nearby university. It is amazing to have a significant other who is also studying medicine because he understands what I am going through, and we can share our passion for medicine for many years to come.

Read more about White Coat Ceremony 2023

Could Personalized PSA Levels Enhance Prostate Cancer Screening?

Updated on Sep 14, 2023 | Featured, Research

The circular diagram displays which nearby gene or genes are connected to new variants linked with PSA levels. Kachuri, L., Hoffmann, T.J., Jiang, Y. et al.,Nature Medicine.

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening has long been the gold standard for detecting prostate cancer at an early stage, aiming to improve treatment outcomes and increase survival rates.

But the screening tool is not without its controversies. PSA levels can be affected by various factors, resulting in false positives or negatives. This test may miss some cancers while detecting others that might not actually be clinically significant.

Therefore, there has been a growing interest in the field to find ways to enhance its effectiveness.

The answer might lie in every man’s genes.

In the June 1 online issue of Nature Medicine, a team of researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and collaborators revealed that tailoring prostate cancer screening to individuals, in which PSA is adjusted for genetic factors, could offer a more viable approach to enhancing screening.

“While utilizing blood PSA levels for prostate cancer screening remains contentious due to issues like detecting cancer in men with low PSA and missing it in those with slightly elevated PSA, our multicenter study aimed to improve this approach by accounting for individual genetic variations in PSA levels,” says Robert J. Klein, PhD, Professor, Genetics and Genomic Sciences and a co-author of the paper.

Drawing from Dr. Klein’s earlier research highlighting the impact of individual genetics on PSA levels, this study aimed to determine whether adjusting for these genetic factors could enhance the accuracy of the screening tool.

“The goal is for this to pave the way for using genetically tailored PSA levels for prostate cancer screening, instead of using raw PSA levels,” says Robert J. Klein, PhD.

Using data from several cohorts of healthy men of diverse ancestries, the researchers measured PSA and genetic variants. Computational analyses linked each variant to PSA levels, and an algorithm constructed a genetic model for predicting PSA levels. The study assessed the effectiveness of PSA, either adjusted or not adjusted using this score, in predicting prostate cancer presence upon biopsy.

The researchers found that the score could predict nearly 10 percent of variation in PSA levels. However, it demonstrated more effectiveness in men of European descent than of East Asian or African heritage. Upon applying their scoring method to a dataset comprising men with and without confirmed prostate cancer through biopsy, the researchers estimated that about 30 percent of the men could have been spared from undergoing unnecessary biopsies.

“Our study shows how genetic variants can predict PSA levels and explores using this prediction in patient care. The goal is for this to pave the way for using genetically tailored PSA levels for prostate cancer screening, instead of using raw PSA levels,” says Dr. Klein.

Next, the researchers plan to perform a broader analysis involving more individuals of diverse ancestries, including through the BioMe® biobank at Mount Sinai. This step aims to confirm the applicability of the score across different populations.

Dr. Klein and his team are also exploring, as part of a separate undertaking, whether genetics could be used to better predict individuals at risk for prostate cancers that are potentially life-threatening.

New Grant Helps Preventive Medicine Residents Forge Deeper Ties With Vulnerable Groups

Updated on Sep 7, 2023 | Community, Featured, School

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.

The $285,000-a-year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration strengthens the General Preventive Medicine Residency Program’s longstanding focus on health equity.

Kristin Oliver, MD, MHS

“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.

Learn more about the General Preventive Medicine Residency Program
Learn more about Mount Sinai and the Community

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