2023 Jacobi Medallion Award Ceremony

Mar 23, 2023 | Alumni, Featured, Research

A group portrait of the 2023 Jacobi Medallion Award honorees joined by others attending the ceremony, including Dennis Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Kenneth Davis, MD, CEO of Mount Sinai Health System.

Seated, from left: Sandra K. Masur, PhD, FASCB; Talia H. Swartz, MD, PhD, MSSM ’08, MSH ’13; Lakshmi A. Devi, PhD; Marta Filizola, PhD; Jessica R. Moise; Swan N. Thung, MD, FAASLD; and Kenneth Davis, MD, CEO of Mount Sinai Health System. Standing, from left: Patricia Kovatch; Ramon Parsons, MD, PhD; Bruce E. Sands, MD, MS; I. Michael Leitman, MD, FACS;  Burton A. Cohen, MD, MSH ’79; and Dennis Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The Mount Sinai Alumni Association and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai presented accomplished physicians, researchers, educators, and administrators with the 2023 Jacobi Medallion, one of Mount Sinai’s highest awards. The annual ceremony was held Wednesday, March 15 at the Plaza Hotel.

The recipients of the Jacobi Medallion have made exceptional contributions to the Mount Sinai Health System, Icahn Mount Sinai, the Mount Sinai Alumni Association, or the fields of medicine or biomedicine.

View the digital program

Watch the In Memoriam video

Burton A. Cohen, MD, MSH ’79

Radiologist, New York Medical Imaging Associates

Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Diagnostic, Molecular and Interventional Radiology

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Watch a video of Dr. Cohen

Lakshmi A. Devi, PhD

Mount Sinai Professor in Molecular Pharmacology

Professor, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, and Department of Psychiatry

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Watch a video of Dr. Devi

Marta Filizola, PhD

Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Sharon and Frederick Klingenstein/Nathan Kase, MD Professorship

Professor, Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, and Windreich Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Watch a video of Dr. Filizola

Patricia Kovatch

Dean for Scientific Computing and Data

Professor, Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, and Pharmacological Sciences

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Watch a video of Dean Kovatch

I. Michael Leitman, MD, FACS

Dean for Graduate Medical Education

Professor, Department of Surgery, and the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Medical Education

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Watch a video of Dr. Leitman

Jessica R. Moise

Senior Associate Dean for Sponsored Programs, Grants and Contracts Officer

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Watch a video of Dean Moise

Ramon Parsons, MD, PhD

Icahn Scholar

Director, The Tisch Cancer Institute and Mount Sinai Health System Tisch Cancer Center

Ward-Coleman Chair in Cancer Research

Professor and Chairman, Department of Oncological Sciences

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Watch a video of Dr. Parsons

Bruce E. Sands, MD, MS

Dr. Burrill B. Crohn Professor of Medicine Professor

Professor and Chief, Dr. Henry D. Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Watch a video of Dr. Sands

Swan N. Thung, MD, FAASLD

Professor, Lillian and Henry M. Stratton-Hans Popper Department of Pathology, Molecular and Cell-Based Medicine

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Watch a video of Dr. Thung

Learn more about alumni at Mount Sinai

Match Day 2023: A Message in a Bottle Launches a New Journey

Updated on Mar 24, 2023 | Featured, School

As the 2023 class of medical school students from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai filled the Guggenheim Pavilion on Friday, March 17, the air was abuzz with smiles and hugs from familiar faces. The hour drew closer to noon, and the fourth-year students, along with tens of thousands of their peers across the country, awaited the arrival of a message that would mark the next phase of their medical careers: their residency program matches on Match Day.

“This class will forever be in the history of Mount Sinai,” said Dennis Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Icahn Mount Sinai, addressing expectant attendees. The class arrived as first-year students and began their training during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City.

“Adversity reveals character, and the way you handled the pandemic says a lot about who you are,” said Dr. Charney. “You did great. You’re going to find out in a minute or so that you matched to the best programs in the United States.”

Match Day celebrates the Main Residency Match, conducted by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). The program aligns the preferences of applicants with the preferences of residency programs at teaching hospitals across the nation through mathematical algorithms.

This year, Icahn Mount Sinai’s graduating MD class received their matches in a personalized bottle. They matched to many of the nation’s most competitive residency programs, spanning more than 22 specialties across the country.

Learn more about the numbers behind Match Day 2023 and celebrate these exceptional individuals with us.

Fourth-year MD students from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai received their residency matches in a personalized bottle on Match Day 2023

The 2023 Main Residency Match was the largest in NMRP’s 70-year history—with 42,952 applicants, 34,822 of whom matched to a first-year position (PGY-1)

With 81.1 percent of applicants for 2023 matched, it represents a 1 percent increase over the previous year

Mount Sinai Health System welcomes 512 new residents, who will arrive in July

The Health System’s new residents come from some of the top medical schools in the United States, including 55 Icahn Mount Sinai graduates

From Icahn Mount Sinai’s Class of 2023, comprising 137 students, 26.3 percent matched into primary care specialties, 23.4 percent matched into surgical specialties, and 40.9 percent matched into other specialties

In the other specialties, Icahn Mount Sinai’s graduating class had the most matches into psychiatry, with 8.8 percent. This was followed by anesthesiology and emergency medicine, both with 7.3 percent, and dermatology, with 5.1 percent

A record number of primary care positions were offered in the 2023 Main Residency Match. There were 571 more primary care positions than 2022, an increase of 3.2 percent over last year and an increase of 17 percent over the last five years. Primary care positions also were filled at a rate of 94.2 percent, which remained steady from last year

Three Years After the Start of the Pandemic, Reasons for Hope and Continued Vigilance

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

It has been three years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020, by the World Health Organization. With New York City as an early epicenter, residents were hit hard. But from that experience, health care providers and researchers across the city found the opportunity to learn more about the virus and how to prepare for future pandemics.

Today, the city’s level of community transmission of COVID-19 is considered low, and the percentage of people who have completed their primary series of COVID-19 vaccinations is relatively high, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Similarly, hospitalization and mortality rates from COVID-19 remained low in recent months, compared to the period between 2020 and 2022.

Bernard Camins, MD

These factors mean that New Yorkers can probably afford to relax their vigilance compared to previous years, notes Bernard Camins, MD, Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Medical Director for Infection Prevention at the Mount Sinai Health System.

“We have come a long way. However, we still need to monitor how COVID-19 is affecting those who are at high risk of complications.”

Bernard Camins, MD

Who should remain vigilant?

Vulnerable groups include those who are immunocompromised, and those aged 50 and older, even if they’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19. People with certain underlying medical conditions, such as cancer; chronic kidney, lung, or liver disease; dementia; diabetes; heart conditions, or obesity are also considered at heightened risk.

For younger or healthy individuals, having COVID-19 these days might involve cold-like or mild symptoms, 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 Mount Sinai. But vulnerable populations are at risk for developing severe disease, she adds. This includes hospitalization, needing intensive care, requiring a ventilator to breathe, or even death.

For at-risk groups, masking is recommended, as is avoiding large indoor gatherings. People planning to be organ donors should also remain vigilant for signs and symptoms of COVID-19, as an active infection could complicate one’s ability to donate, Dr. Aberg says.

“Also, people seem to have forgotten about hand hygiene; that is still important,” she notes.

What protection measures are available today?

With the federal Test to Treat initiative in place nationwide since 2022, symptomatic individuals who test positive for COVID-19 at testing sites can receive antiviral treatment, such as Paxlovid, on the spot.

“Taking Paxlovid provides that extra protection from developing complications, and the sooner it is taken, the better,” says Dr. Camins. Patients are recommended to receive antiviral treatment within five days of developing symptoms.

“One mistake people make with antivirals is that they wait to see if they feel better or worse before seeking treatment.”

Judith Aberg, MD

“If you’re a senior citizen, or have any of the underlying health conditions, when you test positive and have any symptoms, go seek treatment immediately. Do not wait,” says Dr. Aberg.

All individuals, and especially vulnerable populations, should stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines, including the bivalent boosters, which are authorized for those ages 5 and older. “However, among people who were recommended to receive the bivalent booster, very few of them did,” Dr. Camins points out. “It seems many people have moved on regarding the pandemic before we really should.”

Judith Aberg, MD

According to the CDC, 17 percent of the U.S. population ages 5 and up have received the updated booster. In New York, that number is 18 percent.

Data have shown that the updated boosters either prevented infection or reduced the possibility of developing severe disease in people who received them. Another possible benefit of keeping up to date with vaccination is that it might prevent new variants from being as deadly as previous strains, Dr. Aberg says.

Will we need annual boosters?

Just as the bivalent boosters were updated to protect against current circulating variants and strains of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, researchers and officials are monitoring how the pathogen continues to evolve. Most of the scientific and medical community believe that the virus is headed in the direction of becoming endemic, or regularly occurring, Dr. Aberg says. “However, the jury is still out on whether annual updated boosters will be necessary,” she adds.

Neither the Food and Drug Administration nor the CDC has made any determinations on recommending annual COVID-19 shots, unlike what they have done with the flu. The data on COVID-19 collected over the recent winter could provide clarity on whether another shot might be needed this fall, says Dr. Aberg.

There are other seasonal coronaviruses and rhinoviruses that cause respiratory infections that do not require annual boosters. “It’s hard to predict whether the virus will take another turn to cause more morbidity or mortality. We’ll have to wait to see what the data shows us,” Dr. Aberg says.

What other things about COVID-19 should we be aware of?

The public health emergency declaration, which has been in place since 2020, will come to an end on Thursday, May 11, 2023. This might have implications regarding cost sharing or coverage regarding various COVID-19-related services, such as testing, treatment, or vaccinations. This might mean some services will no longer be free or will start requiring copays, depending on the insurance.

While the New York State Department of Health has not released any guidance on cost impacts, providers need to inform their patients and communities to follow up with their insurance companies and be aware of possible coverage changes, Dr. Aberg says.

“People need to be informed about potential costs before seeking COVID-19 care,” Dr. Aberg notes. “But on the other hand, we don’t want people to avoid seeking help because of cost.” If a patient experiences troubling symptoms, such as shortness of breath or fever, they should see a primary care doctor or go to the emergency room, she adds.

The medical and science community is also closer to understanding post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, or the condition colloquially known as “long COVID.”

Anyone who is infected with COVID-19 has a risk of going on to develop long COVID, in which individuals experience symptoms that persist beyond three months after the acute phase. An estimated 1 in 13 adults in the United States have long COVID, according to the CDC.

“We’re starting to zero in on specific biomarkers for people with long COVID,” says David Putrino, PhD, Director of Rehabilitation Innovation for the Mount Sinai Health System. These include platelet hyperactivation, microclots, immune dysfunction, and microbiome dysfunction.

“We are getting the science to a place where we may finally be able to identify this condition objectively.”

David Putrino, PhD

David Putrino, PhD

This has allowed providers to be better educated about the sorts of things that could cause long COVID symptoms to flare up, Dr. Putrino says. The availability of objective biomarkers also means the ability to start testing therapeutics to treat long COVID.

“A year ago, I would have thrown my hands in the air and said there were no good drug trials for long COVID,” Dr. Putrino says. “Now, I feel a little confident that we can start promising patients that these trials are on the horizon.”

“We’re getting close to getting therapeutics to prescribe. I’m hoping that will be a reality over the next two years or so,” Dr. Putrino says.

Read more about how COVID-19 research has progressed throughout the pandemic

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

Pin It on Pinterest