As the Pandemic Recedes, COVID-19 Research Continues on Many Fronts

Updated on Mar 17, 2023 | COVID Response, COVID-19, Featured, Research

While COVID-19 community transmission, mortality, and hospitalization rates have come down across the country in recent months, the efforts to understand more about SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, continue at full speed. “The energy is still robust,” says Judith Aberg, MD, Chief of Infectious Diseases for the Mount Sinai Health System and Dr. George Baehr Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Judith Aberg, MD

Much research progress has been made since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, but more work remains to be done.

“At all levels, from academic institutions to federal agencies, resources are still being poured into studying COVID-19 and this level of dedication is unlikely to go away anytime soon.”

Judith Aberg, MD

“It is precisely because, as a community, we have put so much effort into studying COVID-19 that we were able to learn so much about the virus and come up with vaccines and therapeutics at an unprecedented pace,” says Miriam Merad, MD, PhD, Director of the Marc and Jennifer Lipschultz Precision Immunology Institute, and Mount Sinai Professor in Cancer Immunology.

How has COVID-19 knowledge grown over the years?

A recent breakthrough was learning why COVID-19 affects older people more severely than children, says Dr. Merad. In many other respiratory diseases, such as influenza, typically both very young and very old people are most susceptible to complications.

“One of the biggest factors we’ve discovered is that age affects innate immune response,” she says. Older individuals are more likely to have a defective response in which their type I interferon activity is less likely to mount an antiviral or anti-inflammatory response, she adds.

Understanding the links of age to inflammatory response had also been a big piece in solving the COVID-19 puzzle, Dr. Merad says.

“It appears that SARS-CoV-2 might not be directly destroying organs. Rather, pathogenic-led inflammation might be doing so instead.”

Miriam Merad, MD, PhD

While SARS-CoV-2 is in the class of coronaviruses, very little was known about its specific pathophysiology, how it infects cells and induces injury, and how the host can control the virus. The scientific community has made inroads into these fields over the past year, especially in recent months, Dr. Merad notes.

 

Miriam Merad, MD, PhD

At the start of the pandemic, there were also no objective biomarkers to characterize the disease. Today, researchers have identified various measures, including platelet hyperactivations, microclots, and immune and microbiome dysfunction, as ways to analyze the impacts of COVID-19 on the body, especially for post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, the condition colloquially known “long COVID.”

“It’s really bleeding-edge,” says David Putrino, PhD, Director of Rehabilitation Innovation at the Mount Sinai Health System. “It has really coalesced over time, and has taken two years before impressive articles were coming out about meaningful biomarkers.”

How had COVID-19 research been challenging?

“It is really difficult to do research in the middle of a pandemic,” recalls Dr. Merad. With measures in place to keep staff safe from infection, as well as prevent lab leaks, it became challenging to develop animal models. Additionally, given that COVID-19 was a new disease, there were few good models to start with, she adds.

Barriers to knowledge, tools, or resources also made studying COVID-19 an uphill task. As the disease has symptoms that span multiple specialties, including neurology, immunology, pulmonology, cardiology, and more, an effective effort into studying the pathogen required broad capabilities.

David Putrino, PhD

“I’m a neuroscientist, focusing on electrophysiology of the brain, and had a set of tools I was comfortable using,” says Dr. Putrino. “But along came COVID-19 and suddenly I had to become an expert on immune physiology, on drawing blood, and running a wet lab.”

“Collaboration became necessary, especially with people outside our usual fields.”

David Putrino, PhD

“While I feel fortunate that I’m in a position from a funding and career standpoint that can support my needs for long COVID research, many others aren’t as fortunate to develop those skill sets,” Dr. Putrino says. The reality of many scientists needing to keep their labs running and applying for grants could mean it was easier to relegate COVID-19 research to someone else, he adds.

The nascent field of COVID-19 research, especially for long COVID, means the scientific community is still divided on various definitions. But with the pandemic dying down, researchers are able to communicate and collaborate more effectively across the country on standards and definitions when it comes to conducting research or collecting data, especially as scientific conferences return in full force, Dr. Merad says.

What are some things we still don’t know about COVID-19?

On the clinical side, it is not clear for hospitalized patients what are the best immune modulating therapies or strategies. “When should we start combination immune modulating therapies? Are antivirals effective in patients on high flow oxygen if they still are shedding virus?” says Dr. Aberg. “We are still trying to optimize modalities.”

New treatments for COVID-19, including antiviral drugs such as Paxlovid, are now available to help reduce the likeliness of developing severe disease. But some shortfalls remain.

“For example, Paxlovid has significant drug-to-drug interactions and not everyone can take that,” notes Dr. Aberg. “We’re still learning how to be able to manage those who are immunocompromised and are experiencing persistent viral shedding.”

Some of the monoclonal antibody treatments that had been developed for COVID-19 and had shown efficacy earlier in the pandemic have since become less effective against current circulating variants. “We need to develop tools for rapid sequencing of virus to detect which variant is causing disease while simultaneously having available active antibody therapies.  We hope that future anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies will be effective to treat and prevent COVID-19, especially for those who are immunocompromised,” Dr. Aberg says.

In basic science, many questions about viral pathophysiology remain unanswered, especially with regards to how it affects coagulation, thrombosis, and inflammation, says Dr. Merad. Even with the success of COVID-19 vaccines at reducing infection incidence and severity, people still can still be infected, and it is not clear why that is so, she adds.

What is the current state of COVID-19 research and where is it headed?

Clinicians are looking at whether they can combine different treatment modalities, especially for immunocompromised patients, says Dr. Aberg.

The National Institutes of Health is still conducting its efforts through the networks the agency has formed during the pandemic, and is conducting multicenter clinical trials, Dr. Aberg points out. It has preserved its expedited pipeline for testing novel therapeutics, including the use of “adaptive platform studies,” where new investigative agents could use an adapted template without the need for developing a new protocol from scratch.

Long COVID clinical trials are coming down the pipeline, says Dr. Putrino. A trial to test the use of Paxlovid for treating long COVID has received an Institutional Review Board approval from the Food and Drug Administration, making it one of the first of its kind for a targeted treatment of the condition, he notes.

The discovery of objective biomarkers will also pave the way for new drugs to be developed for long COVID, or for existing treatments to be explored, says Dr. Putrino.

These biomarkers could also be leveraged for uses beyond COVID-19. “The pandemic made us realize how we have few assays to measure our immune fitness to tell us whether someone can be susceptible to disease,” says Dr. Merad. Immune biomarkers could be used to develop assays to measure whether an individual could mount a good immune response, perhaps to vaccination, or just in general. “Can we build novel tools to measure our immune fitness, in the same way we can measure our blood sugar?” she questions.

It is undeniable that clinicians and researchers are committed to COVID-19 research, says Dr. Merad. “That’s what we’re fighting for,” she says. “We’re talking to everyone—industry partners, government entities—on the need for continued effort, and everyone is on board.”

Read the latest on staying safe from COVID-19 in 2023
Here are Some COVID-19 Research Milestones at Mount Sinai

2022

  • Dec 8: Mount Sinai researchers published one of the first studies about changes in blood gene expression during COVID-19 being linked to long COVID
  • Aug 9: Mount Sinai launched CastleVax, a clinical-stage vaccine research and development company, whose capabilities can be leveraged to tackle SARS-CoV-2
  • June 28: Mount Sinai-led team showed immune particles derived from the blood of a llama could provide strong protection against every COVID-19 variant
  • June 14: Mount Sinai researchers have developed a rapid blood assay that measures the magnitude and duration of someone’s immunity to SARS-CoV-2
  • Mar 31: Faculty from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai play key roles in the SAVE program, established by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • Mar 21: Clinical investigators at the Icahn Mount Sinai launched a Phase 1, open-label, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of an egg-based COVID-19 vaccine in healthy, vaccinated adults who have never been infected with COVID-19

2021

  • Nov 29: Icahn Mount Sinai served as a hub site for two cohort studies as part of nationwide health consortium study by NIH on the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2
  • May 25: Mount Sinai and the Pershing Square Foundation expanded a saliva-based COVID-19 testing program
  • April 5: Mount Sinai launched the Mount Sinai COVID-19 PCR Saliva Testing program for businesses and leisure activities in New York
  • Jan 27: Mount Sinai researchers demonstrated using a machine learning technique called “federated learning” to examine electronic health records to better predict how COVID-19 patients will progress
  • Jan 27: Scientists at University of California, San Francisco, and the Department of Microbiology at Icahn Mount Sinai reported data showing the promise and potential of Aplidin® (plitidepsin), a drug approved by the Australian Regulatory Agency for the treatment of multiple myeloma, against SARS-CoV-2

2020

  • Dec 29: Emergent BioSolutions and Mount Sinai initiated a clinical program to evaluate COVID-19 Human Hyperimmune Globulin product candidate in the first of two Phase 1 studies for potential post-exposure prophylaxis in individuals at high risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2
  • Sept 17: The Clinical Laboratories of The Mount Sinai Hospital has received emergency use authorization from the New York State Department of Health for quantitative use of Mount Sinai’s COVID-19 antibody test
  • June 17: Mount Sinai submitted a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for issuance of an emergency use authorization for quantitative use of its serologic test
  • May 14: Mount Sinai established the Institute for Health Equity Research to understand the effects of health issues including COVID-19
  • April 15: Mount Sinai Laboratory, Center for Clinical Laboratories received emergency use authorization from the UFDA for an antibody test
  • April 3: Mount Sinai developed a new remote monitoring platform to help health care providers care for COVID-19 patients who are recovering at home
  • April 1: Scientists, physicians, and engineers at Mount Sinai launched STOP COVID NYC, a web-based app to capture the symptoms and spread of COVID-19 in New York City

White Coat Ceremony Begins Journey for Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing Students

Updated on Mar 17, 2023 | Community, Featured, School

Nursing students take their oath at the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing annual White Coat Ceremony.

In a joyous beginning of education and training, the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing held its annual White Coat Ceremony for students in the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program on Monday, March 13, at the Stern Auditorium at The Mount Sinai Hospital. As each student stepped up to don their official white coat and commemorative pin from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation in the shape of a Mobius loop, they left the stage transformed—excited to begin their nursing journeys at Mount Sinai.

During her keynote address, Laly Joseph, DVM, DNP, CNE, RN, C, MSN, APRN, ANP, FNAP, Vice Dean and Professor at the School of Nursing, spoke of the creation of the White Coat Ceremony by the Gold Foundation as a rite of passage for students in 1993. She told the students that their Gold Foundation pin “connects health care professionals with their patients when humanism is at the core of health care, so wear it with pride.”

Beth Oliver, DNP, RN, FAAN, Chief Nurse Executive and Senior Vice President, Cardiac Services at the Mount Sinai Health System, took the podium to reflect on the mission of the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing and the start of each student’s journey to advance the delivery of outstanding health care to local and global communities. She informed students of the significance of their new white coats, which symbolize the “essential role that nurses play.”

In the larger health care field, the white coat continues to be recognized as a powerful symbol of knowledge, skill, and integrity. In the late 1800s, a student of Florence Nightingale’s designed the first recognizable uniform for nurses. This traditional uniform comprised a long dress paired with an apron and cap. Nurses across the world began wearing similar uniforms. Changes have been made to that traditional form of dress: pants and shirts became popular in the 1980s, and scrubs emerged as the most popular nursing uniform in the 1990s. Today, scrubs remain the most recognizable nursing uniform, worn by nurses and students in the hospital setting, though nurse managers and advanced practice nurses often wear the coat as well.

The annual White Coat Ceremony represents the transformation that occurs when a medical student begins learning to become a health care professional. In 2014, the White Coat Ceremony was extended beyond physicians to other health care professions, including nursing.

During her keynote address, Dr. Joseph shared quotes from White Coat Ceremony founder, Dr. Gold: “Listen, listen to your patients. See them as human beings, pay attention to what they are telling you, don’t be afraid to care. The connections you make with your colleagues, your patients, and your patients’ families are crucial for them and you.” She concluded with a quote by Maya Angelou who said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Todd F. Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, APRN, FNP-BC, FNAP, Dean of the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing and Vice President of Nursing Affairs for the Mount Sinai Health System, said the nursing profession continues to be deemed the most trusted of all professions. As the ceremony concluded, he told the students: “You look stunning in your white coats. I’m really proud of you.”

Fatima Ali and Elie Allomong were among the students who received white coats at the ceremony.

Fatima Ali

Ms. Ali earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature and began teaching English as a mentor in Salamanca, Spain. Ms. Ali was fortunate to experience cultural immersion while pursuing her passion to teach, but she eventually felt a stronger pull toward health care. “During my undergraduate years, I had the chance to engage in various volunteer and work opportunities,” she says. “I volunteered at NYU Langone Health, as well as a podiatrist clinic in Queens and a learning center for children with disabilities in Bali, Indonesia. These experiences exposed me to the world of health care and inspired me to pursue a career in this field.”

After graduation, Ms. Ali aspires to work in labor and delivery nursing. She looks forward to working with patients and families across a diverse community. “It is crucial we understand and appreciate the cultural differences that exist within our society. Mount Sinai’s ABSN program recognizes this and has taken steps to ensure its students are equipped to provide care to a diverse patient population.”

Elie Allomong

Mr. Allomong begins the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing ABSN program after earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in speech-language pathology. He has worked as a speech-language pathologist since 2015.

“I wanted to be a nurse since I was in middle school, but because of the education system in my country of Rwanda, I was placed in a teaching program,” he says. “I thought I had no chance to become a nurse until I moved to the United States and learned about second degrees.”

After graduation, Mr. Allomong hopes to gain experience in emergency nursing, with an ultimate goal of becoming a nurse practitioner.

Learn more about the Phillips School of Nursing

Prostate Cancer Research Gala Celebrates Innovations in Research and Patient Care at Mount Sinai

Updated on Mar 16, 2023 | Community, Featured, Your Health

Frorm left: Dennis Charney, MD, Ash Tewari, MBBS, MCh, and Robert F. Smith

The Milton and Carroll Petrie Department of Urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai hosted its annual Prostate Cancer Research Gala on Tuesday, March 7, at the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center.

Ash Tewari, MBBS, MCh, Chair of the Department of Urology at the Mount Sinai Health System and the Kyung Hyun Kim, MD Professor of Urology at Icahn Mount Sinai, started the gala with the goal of raising money for the Center of Excellence for Prostate Cancer within the Department of Urology. Its mission is to eliminate prostate cancer through programs that integrate patient care, research and prevention, and education for students, trainees, professionals, and the public.

With nearly 200 people in attendance and more than $1 million raised, the event was a success by any measure.

The first honoree to be recognized was Burton Wallack, a three-time cancer survivor who received the Patient of Courage Award.

Burton Wallack, left, and Robert F. Smith

“Go to the end…and you can still win. And that’s the story of Burt Wallack,” said Dr. Tewari in a video shown at the event. Mr. Wallack, the founder and Chairman of Wallack Management Company, also serves on the Chairman’s Urology Board, partnering with his doctor to advance research.

Dennis Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Icahn Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs for the Mount Sinai Health System, received the Champion of Excellence Award. As Dr. Tewari noted in a video: “I wanted to start a program in prostate cancer. Dr. Charney turned that into a prostate cancer Center of Excellence…He made it one of the most comprehensive programs and not just by telling us how to do it, but by providing every support.”

“I’m proud of where we have come, but I’m not satisfied,” said Dr. Charney, embodying his tireless pursuit of improved outcomes for patients before continuing: “Am I still being innovative? Am I still being inspiring to others? Am I still working with our teams to come up with great ideas? That’s what I think about all the time.”

The event also saw the bestowal of the inaugural Steven Southwick, MD Memorial Award, named in memory of a leading expert on trauma and resilience who passed away from prostate cancer in 2022. Dr. Southwick, Glenn H. Greenberg Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, PTSD, and Resilience at the Yale School of Medicine, was also mentor and friend to Dr. Charney. “Steve was my buddy, my brother,” said Dr. Charney. “He was brilliant, but that doesn’t capture him. He was the finest person I’ve ever met,” Dr. Charney continued before detailing Dr. Southwick’s contributions to our understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Steven Southwick, MD Memorial Award recognizes the recipient’s dedication to prostate cancer research and was given to Sujit S. Nair, PhD, an Assistant Professor and Director of Genitourinary Immunotherapy Research in the Department of Urology at Icahn Mount Sinai. Dr. Tewari praised his innovation and hard work, while Dr. Nair noted, “The long-term goal, the fact that we can cure cancer, is the motivation—that’s what excites me.”

Sujit S. Nair, PhD, and Dennis Charney, MD

The final honoree was Robert F. Smith, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, who was presented with the Visionary Award for his commitment to addressing the disparity that sees higher rates of prostate cancer—and death—among Black men. Through his collaboration and funding, the Mount Sinai Robert F. Smith Mobile Prostate Cancer Screening unit was launched, a state-of-the-art “doctor’s office on wheels” that takes specialized staff and equipment into the neighborhoods of the men who need it most.

“We’re honoring Robert for being a kind human being,” Dr. Tewari remarked, “a philanthropist, a person who really wants to make an impact, a person who is touched by human lives, a person who cannot take his eyes away from a problem, and if he can make a difference, he does it. He has made a tremendous difference in this cause for prostate cancer.”

Graciously accepting the award, Mr. Smith said, “I’m very hopeful that this is going to be one of those sparks that really leads to a platform of access to health care for the African American community—and save lives.”

With an ambitious goal to reduce deaths from prostate cancer by 25 percent in the Mount Sinai community, this is a spark that will have far-reaching implications. While the event was a celebration of many accomplishments at the Center of Excellence for Prostate Cancer, its true significance may lie in the ongoing inspiration to keep pushing forward at the boundaries of research and patient care.

The Milton and Carroll Petrie Department of Urology at the Mount Sinai Health System has more than 190 urologists on staff, more than any other health care system in New York City. Its robotic surgery program is among the most robust in the country. Genomic testing and advanced imaging are routine for patients with prostate cancer, providing personalized and precise treatment protocols.

Learn more about the Prostate Cancer Research Gala

Committed to Education and Equity: A Q&A With Reena Karani, MD, MHPE, the New Chair of the National Board of Medical Examiners

Updated on Nov 14, 2025 | Community, Engagement, Featured

 

Reena Karani, MD, MHPE

Reena Karani, MD, MHPE, Director of the Institute for Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, was recently elected Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME), becoming the first woman of color to serve in this role in the organization’s 108-year history.

The nonprofit organization develops and administers state-of-the-art assessment tools for health professionals across the continuum of education, training, and practice. Dr. Karani and other NBME board members direct the organization’s policy and strategy and ensure the advancement of the organization’s commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, among other duties.

Dr. Karani, Professor of Medical Education, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, and Medicine, has been integrally involved in educating learners at all levels and has served in a variety of educational leadership roles. She was Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and Curricular Affairs for more than 10 years before being appointed in 2020 as Director of the Institute, whose mission is to advance teaching, learning, and scholarship in health professions education. Over the years, she has mentored hundreds of trainees and faculty members who are now themselves renowned medical education scholars and change leaders around the country.

“We have integrated into our curriculum core skills related to community-based health, global health, physician advocacy, and human rights,” says Dr. Karani, who received Mount Sinai’s Jacobi Medallion for excellence in 2022. “These are key competencies that we believe our physicians of the future need, and it is our obligation to ensure they are prepared for that future.”

In this Q&A, Dr. Karani discusses her new role, her lifelong commitment to advancing innovative medical education and scholarship both nationally and at Mount Sinai, and her thoughts on addressing bias and inequity in the learning environment.

Reena Karani, MD, MHPE, attends a research presentation with faculty and students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

What priorities and directions will you pursue as NBME chair?

The National Board of Medical Examiners is fully invested in offering evidence-based, patient-centered, and bias-free assessment tools for health professionals. I’ve been an active part of those efforts for the past decade through my work as a member of several test material development committees and the Board of Directors. My new role as chair represents an opportunity to strengthen our commitment in two areas I see of particular importance. One is mitigating bias, and the second is continuing to advance the assessment of critical competencies necessary for health care practice in the 21st century. Historically, medical education has taught race as a biologic category based on innate differences that produce health outcomes. Yet this is fundamentally flawed, because race is a social category that reflects the impact of unequal social experiences on health. Centuries of structural racism and bias have contributed to racial and ethnic disparities in health, outcomes, and opportunity. Medicine has a long history of racism and bias, beginning with who is allowed to join the profession and ranging from what is taught and assessed and how clinical care is delivered to the policies, practices, and procedures of our systems. It is everywhere, and there is no more pressing a challenge facing us in health professions education today. We must commit to working tirelessly to face and address these issues. This is not easy, and there are no quick fixes, but we must, for the sake of future generations, commit to this work each and every day. This is a personal journey for me, and an organizational journey that the NBME is fully committed to taking on.

What does being the first woman of color to serve as chair mean to you and to the field?

The enormous privilege and honor of being chair is not lost on me, especially in light of all those who struggled before me and worked tirelessly to have a voice at the table. Being chair of the NBME Board of Directors, indeed, feels amazing, even intimidating, but I have the strength of this highly respected organizations’ staff, my colleagues on the Board, and our faculty from the “house of medicine” to propel me forward. It will also allow me, as a faculty member from Mount Sinai, to advance important conversations about assessment and equity, make meaningful contributions to medical schools and learners, and strive to meet the mission of the organization, which is to protect the health of the public.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, center, joined Dr. Karani and colleagues during a 2015 visit to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

How have your varied positions and activities at Mount Sinai prepared you for your new role?

My 23-year career at Mount Sinai has afforded me an incredible foundation as a professor of medicine, medical education, and geriatrics and palliative medicine. With the support of countless mentors and sponsors, I’ve been privileged to have many educational leadership roles here, and each of these roles, from co-directing the Integrated Medicine-Geriatrics Clerkship to serving as Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education and Curricular Affairs, has helped prepare me for this new role.

At the end of 2020, I became Director of the Institute for Medical Education, which is the organizational core that fosters the development and dissemination of best practices and scholarly innovations in teaching and learning, and serves as the trusted professional development source for health professions’ educators and scholars. We are proud to serve as an inclusive home for all medical educators and, as such, all our programming is designed to help educator faculty achieve their full potential.

One focus of your career has been geriatric medicine and palliative care. Why is it important to integrate geriatrics and palliative medicine training into the medical curriculum?

No matter what field of medicine an individual practices, they are going to care for and connect with older people. Even in pediatrics, there are many children in this country who are being raised by their grandparents. In addition, the key competencies in palliative medicine of providing quality care to those with serious illness are also critical no matter what field of medicine a person chooses to practice. So we have a responsibility to teach and assess the key skills and behaviors necessary to care for older people and those with serious illnesses across the continuum of medical education.

I’ve had great opportunities through my work at Mount Sinai to bring these geriatrics and palliative medicine perspectives forward. We have integrated and created opportunities: We’ve woven relevant learning into courses and clerkships, such as how human physiology changes as one ages, what the impact of aging is on pharmacology and pharmacodynamics, and how aging affects mobility and function as part of the study of the musculoskeletal system. And, we also proudly offer a required clerkship in geriatrics and palliative medicine that occurs during the third year of a medical student’s training at Mount Sinai. This allows our trainees to learn from and be mentored by our world-class faculty in geriatrics and palliative medicine.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your new opportunities and challenges as National Board chair?

I believe my new role sends a strong message to the medical community about the Board’s commitment to ensuring diversity, equity, and justice in all aspects of health professional assessment. Just as importantly, I hope that young faculty see it as an invitation for them to get involved with our organization—to help us build assessments that are relevant and patient-focused and designed to correct the biases of the past for health professionals of the future. I also believe it’s important that young learners, particularly those of color and from historically excluded groups, see the many opportunities that are available to them and reach out to me if there are ways I can support them.

Read more about the Institute for Medical Education at Mount Sinai

The Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health at Mount Sinai Provide Undocumented Immigrant Workers With the Care They Need

Updated on Nov 14, 2025 | Community, Engagement, Featured

Many of the approximately eight million undocumented immigrants in the United States workforce hold critical and essential jobs. Some of these jobs are in construction, cleaning services, transportation—jobs that ensure we have everything from electric power to groceries to child care.

Undocumented workers are more likely to suffer work-related injury or illness than native-born workers, and more likely to experience dangerous working conditions than documented immigrants.

Yet undocumented immigrant workers are less likely to seek care and benefits for their work-related injury or illness.

There are many reasons for this: fear of employer retaliation, including wage theft, firing, and deportation; lack of awareness of rights and resources; intimidation by complex systems and processes; and mistrust in government and health care institutions. Anti-immigrant rhetoric in the United States intensifies many of these fears.

The Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health at Mount Sinai are dedicated to providing all workers, including undocumented immigrant workers, with the care they need.

Michael Crane, MD, MPH

“All workers have the right to health and safety on the job. It is essential that undocumented workers be made aware of and connected to the services they need and deserve,” says Michael Crane, MD, MPH, Medical Director of the Selikoff Centers. “We are dedicated to providing the highest quality care to all workers across our community, including those who are undocumented.”

Undocumented workers have rights and protections under health, safety, and anti-discrimination laws. The Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health at Mount Sinai, as part of its mission through the New York State Occupational Health Clinic Network, provides no-cost, confidential health care and other support services to all workers who have suffered a work-related injury or illness, regardless of documentation or insurance status. This includes evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of work-related conditions. Services also include screenings for hazardous exposures (such as asbestos, lead, and other toxins), injury prevention, benefits counseling, and social work services.

“As members of the New York State Occupational Health Clinic Network, we provide health and safety-related services designed to reduce workplace injuries and illnesses,” says Dr. Crane, who is also a Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “We diagnose and treat ill and injured workers with the goal of safely returning them to work. Our doctors are experts in occupational medicine who understand work-related injury and help their patients obtain appropriate Workers’ Compensation benefits. Our patients may also avail themselves of the guidance and support of our experts in ergonomics, industrial hygiene, social work, and vocational counseling.”

Agata Bednarska

Undocumented workers are eligible for New York State Workers’ Compensation. This law provides benefits for lost wages and medical treatment when a worker becomes sick or injured because of their job. At the Selikoff Centers, Workers’ Compensation coordinators guide patients through the process, which can be overwhelming and confusing. This is especially important for those facing language barriers or who are mistrustful of government systems.

“Navigating the New York State Workers’ Compensation system can be challenging for many injured and sick workers” says Agata Bednarska, Outreach and Education Manager. “Our Workers’ Compensation coordinators are here to educate, support, and assist patients with filing for New York State Workers’ Compensation benefits. We place significant emphasis on educating our patients about their legal rights. Advocacy, education, and treatment by our specialists can reduce the very significant economic burden of injury or illness on the worker and their family.”

Read more about the Mount Sinai Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health

Meet Rachel Vreeman, MD, MS, Director of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health at Mount Sinai

Updated on Mar 21, 2023 | Adolescent Health, AIGH, Featured

“I never wanted to be in a lab or doing statistics, but I absolutely love asking questions about how to best provide care for kids.” – Rachel Vreeman, MD, MS, Director of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health.

Rachel Vreeman, MD, MS, is Chair of the Department of Global Health and Health System Design at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Director of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health. A pediatrician and researcher, she also continues her research work around HIV, with a focus on East Africa, as well as other global work related to children and adolescents living with HIV.

In addition, Dr. Vreeman chairs the Global Pediatric Working Group for the International Epidemiologic Databases Evaluating AIDS (IeDeA) consortium, a global consortium of HIV care programs funded by the National Institutes of Health that compiles data for more than two million people living with HIV.

Prior to joining Mount Sinai in 2019, she served as Director of Research for the Indiana University Center for Global Health and for the AMPATH Research Network, and was an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Joe and Sarah Ellen Mamlin Scholar for Global Health Research. She received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University where she majored in English literature. She has a master’s degree in clinical research from Indiana University School of Medicine and a medical degree from Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

In this Q&A, Dr. Vreeman, who is also a best-selling author of books that debunk medical myths, discusses her vision for the Arnhold Institute for Global Health, how she has witnessed the transformation of care for children with HIV, and what it takes to be a good doctor and researcher.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

I am a pediatrician and researcher who specializes in trying to figure out how to improve care for children and adolescents growing up with HIV all around the world. I have worked for almost the last 20 years in a partnership in Kenya, growing a health care system for families with HIV and engaging with Kenyan partners around how we can best treat HIV in places like East Africa. I grew up in Michigan, then went to college at Cornell, medical school at Michigan State University, and trained in pediatrics at Indiana University. At Indiana University, I was introduced to global health through a long-standing partnership called the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare in Kenya, a 30-plus-year partnership between North American medical schools and a medical school and hospital system in western Kenya. I started spending about six months of the year living and working in Kenya, focused on the care of children with HIV.

One of the things that many people in global health don’t know about me is that I’ve co-authored three best-selling books that debunk medical myths people tend to hold about their bodies and health. This myth-busting has given me lots of interesting opportunities to talk about science and health; it has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and many other publications and on various television and radio shows such as Good Morning America and CNN.

A pediatrician and researcher, Rachel Vreeman, MD, MS, Director of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health, is also a best selling author. Here three books she co-authored:

  • Don’t Swallow Your Gum: Myths, Half-Truths, and Outright Lies about your Body and Health
  • Don’t Cross Your Eyes…They’ll Get Stuck Like That! And 75 Other Health Myths Debunked
  • Don’t Put THAT in THERE! And 69 Other Sex Myths Debunked

What is your vision for the Institute?

My vision for the Institute is that we would grow and deepen a small set of global health partnerships that radically improve the health systems in the places where we are partnering—and that these partnerships would model equity, sustainability, mutual trust, and mutual benefits. Through these kinds of partnerships, I believe the Arnhold Institute for Global Health will be able to move forward research, health care delivery, and educational opportunities that transform health care systems for vulnerable populations. Right now, we are growing these partnerships in Kenya, Nepal, Ghana, and New York City, and we are starting to see the first glimpses of how these partnerships can meet the health needs of populations such as adolescents living with HIV, neighborhoods with diverse populations struggling through COVID-19 spikes, pregnant people with unacceptably high rates of deaths and complications, and people seeking care for chronic diseases like hypertension in rural communities. I cannot wait to see our work like this continue to grow through the partnerships we have formed with academic medical centers, health systems, and government public health partners.

Nima Lama, left, Minister of Health for Bagmati Province in Nepal, presents Dr. Vreeman with a Nepali gift.

How did you get into the adolescent health field?

The most incredible privilege of my career has been the opportunity to become a pediatrician who can focus on supporting adolescents and young adults globally, including those who are living with HIV. In the early years that I worked in Kenya, our hospital wards and our clinics were full of young children who were dying from HIV. Two-year-olds, 3-year-olds, 4-year-olds. I did not take care of more than a handful of older kids. None of the kids born with HIV lived that long.

And now, our clinics in Kenya are such very different places. They are full of teenagers doing teenager things. Going to school, struggling through becoming adults, making friends and arguing with friends. All the good stuff and all the hard stuff. And HIV is now a chronic disease that they are living with. I love getting to watch youth transform not only their own stories, but also start to transform our world. It is the most inspiring, hope-bringing, sometime scary, but always precious thing.

Adolescence is this critical time for youth—the time that often decides whether a person stays in school, remains free of infections like HIV, whether they get pregnant young or not, what their use of drugs or alcohol might look like, and how their social circles develop. But most global health systems have very few services to support all aspects of adolescent health. There are often not places for adolescents to get vaccines or mental health support or family planning services—let alone basic check-ups. Now, I get to focus much of my own work on growing care programs to support adolescent health in places like Kenya.

What is the best part of your job?

I love new ideas. And I love tackling big problems. The very best part of my job is getting to support our multinational teams as everyone collaborates to dream up new ideas that provide better health care and better access to health care for people around the world.

What are you most excited about for the future of the Institute?

At the Institute, we now have the opportunity to change how health care is provided for big groups of people, often living in poor or remote places around the world. We even have the opportunity to work on national health systems and revamping how they provide care to populations like women and children. Being able to have this kind of impact, to be able to be part of scaling up better and more just systems—especially to serve children and women—is so exciting to me.

Do you have any advice for someone looking to go into your field?

I would not be afraid to bring all of yourself to the work that you want to do. For example, I thought that being a book-loving, former English major who loves stories was an interesting part of who I was, but I never thought that it would be part of what it looked like to be a good doctor. In fact, when I started medical school, I thought it might be a real liability that I did not have the kind of science background that many of my peers do. Instead, I learned over time that how we care for people as patients requires us to be very good listeners to their stories. Even more, it is critical to the work I do every single day that I can capture our ideas and their significance in writing.

And, it always helps to stay curious. Once I was in pediatrics, I did not really have any idea what kind of specialty area or focus I might want. I loved taking care of children and addressing the needs of their families, and I had never once thought about a research career. After seeking and questioning during my years of residency, it took a smart mentor to point out to me that I really love working to try to fix health care systems so that they provide better care for the most vulnerable children and their families—and that this was what health services researchers do. I begrudgingly agreed to try out a research elective and quickly discovered that my love of figuring out ideas for how to fix things was actually the perfect basis for growing research. I never wanted to be in a lab or doing statistics, but I absolutely love asking questions about how to best provide care for kids.

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