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When Omicron Struck, Mount Sinai’s Students Signed Up to Help

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | COVID-19, Featured, School

Arman Azad and Aliza Gross

Several days after Christmas, second-year medical student Arman Azad met with top administrators at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to plan how he and fellow students could help the Mount Sinai Health System handle the crush of COVID-19 patients falling sick from the Omicron variant.

As co-leader of the Student WorkForce at Icahn Mount Sinai, Mr. Azad says his job involved “helping the Health System deal with the most severe bottlenecks, as cases rose and staff were in isolation, and then organizing students to address those needs.” He and his co-leaders worked closely with their deans to mobilize students for appropriate roles, ensuring they had the training and protective equipment needed to stay safe.

During this latest COVID-19 surge, 198 medical, PhD, and master’s students at Icahn Mount Sinai have logged roughly 5,000 hours performing various tasks. They have worked in the Emergency Departments at six of the Health System’s eight hospitals and have also helped run asymptomatic testing programs for staff in those locations. Students have assisted in the pop-up testing sites in the student resident hall. And at The Mount Sinai Hospital, which shares a campus with the school, they have delivered meals to inpatients and assisted in the urgent care center.

Their efforts represent the fourth wave of student involvement since Mount Sinai’s Student WorkForce was created in March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Since then, the WorkForce has ebbed and flowed to meet the needs of Mount Sinai’s hospitals. Unlike in earlier waves, the students recently received an hourly wage for their work. Along the way, they have also honed their WorkForce model, sharing it with other schools and health systems throughout the country. Students published a paper about their contributions in June 2021 in Academic Medicine.

In addition to assisting staff, WorkForce members say the most gratifying aspect of their jobs is helping the patients who need Mount Sinai most. Many of Mount Sinai’s hospitals serve communities in New York City that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.

On New Year’s Eve, Mr. Azad worked in The Mount Sinai Hospital’s Emergency Department into the early morning hours, taking patients’ blood pressure and other vitals.

Calista Dominy and Brett Weingart

“It was a busy night and an opportunity to learn from experienced providers and offer relief to staff where I could,” he says. “The pandemic has brought to light many of the inequities in medicine, and Omicron only amplified that. For people who can’t access consistent primary care, the emergency room serves a critical role, one that was threatened by staffing shortages as COVID cases surged. I’m proud of my fellow students who did their small part to ensure the Hospital could continue providing care to those who needed it most.”

Shortly after recovering from COVID-19 herself, Calista Dominy—also in her second year of medical school—assisted in The Mount Sinai Hospital’s Emergency Department on New Year’s Eve, as well. Ms. Dominy says one of the things she loves most about Icahn Mount Sinai is its strong commitment to social justice and student advocacy.

“Working New Year’s in the emergency room is an experience I will never forget,” she says. “The Omicron surge brought many more patients through the doors on a night that is typically notoriously busy.”

Workforce member Jesse F. Mangold, who is a dual MD-PhD student with a specialty in microbiology, chose to deliver meals to The Mount Sinai Hospital’s COVID-19-positive inpatients.

Jesse F. Mangold

“Meal delivery may not be the first role that comes to mind when you think of a first responder, but it means a lot to patients who have reduced contact and need nutrition for recovery,” Mr. Mangold says. “There was this tremendous bottleneck because you couldn’t just enter their rooms with a tray. All of the safety precautions needed to be implemented. My task served two needs—to feed our patients and relieve our already taxed nursing staff.” Before he was able to enter a patient’s room, Mr. Mangold had to properly don his personal protective equipment and then properly doff it immediately after leaving.

In the Hospital’s kitchen, located in the building’s basement and through a labyrinth of hallways, Mr. Mangold worked alongside a staff member who was seven months pregnant. “She was putting the Hospital and its patients first and taking personal risks to bring meals to patients,” he says. “Every team member is essential. She is a health care hero.”

Second-year medical student Claire Ufongene helped Mount Sinai conduct asymptomatic testing of employees. “The asymptomatic testing program allows employees to regularly monitor their health and return to the hospital safely,” she says. “It’s been wonderful to work with members of the Mount Sinai community, including students and employees. I’ve been happy to contribute in a small way to facilitate a testing process that’s easy and accessible.”

Claire Ufongene

Early last year, medical student Aliza Gross became involved in addressing vaccine hesitancy and helping patients obtain COVID-19 vaccine appointments through the internet and their Mount Sinai MyChart apps. At Mount Sinai Morningside, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, she recently helped counsel patients entering the Emergency Department about the benefits of receiving a vaccine.

“It was very meaningful to have patient contact after spending so much of our medical school career remote,” she says. During the most recent spike, Ms. Gross took on the role of Student WorkForce co-leader and started taking shifts in the Mount Sinai Health System’s Express Care center—an urgent care facility—helping administer COVID-19 testing to sick patients. “It was gratifying to help our staff where they were experiencing the biggest backlogs,” she says.

Now that the worst of the Omicron wave seems to be receding, Mr. Azad says students remain ready to respond to future COVID-19 surges. “One lesson from the pandemic is that all of us, no matter our training or background, can in some way help protect our Health System and those we care for,” he says.

Milestone Gift From Marc and Jennifer Lipschultz Elevates Precision Immunology Research at Mount Sinai

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Research

Miriam Merad, MD, PhD

The Mount Sinai Health System has announced a transformative multimillion-dollar gift from Marc Lipschultz, who serves on Mount Sinai’s Boards of Trustees, and his wife, Jennifer, to the Precision Immunology Institute (PrIISM) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

PrIISM has undertaken an innovative and ambitious research agenda aimed at understanding the immune system’s universal role in human health, with the goal of combatting and preventing the world’s most devastating diseases. Marc and Jennifer Lipschultz’s generous support will strengthen PrIISM’s core research programs and the institute will be renamed the Marc and Jennifer Lipschultz Precision Immunology Institute in recognition of their investment.

Nearly every disease has an immune component, making PrIISM’s work particularly important. PrIISM is led by Director Miriam Merad, MD, PhD, a renowned physician-scientist and global leader in immunology, who also serves as Director of the Mount Sinai Human Immune Monitoring Center and Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology).

“We are so thankful to Marc and Jennifer Lipschultz for their visionary support of PrIISM,” says Dr. Merad. “Their gift will allow us to expand our research and drive breakthroughs in immunology that will help us better understand and target the underlying foundations of major human disease.”

Under Dr. Merad’s leadership, PrIISM is already making pivotal advances in precision medicine and developing novel technologies to revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of a broad spectrum of diseases, including cancer, neurodegeneration, atherosclerosis, and aging.

Brian Brown, PhD, Associate Director of PrIISM, leads the development of new cell and gene engineering approaches to understand and manipulate the immune system.

“The Lipschultz’s generous investment is extremely timely and will help us harness the extraordinary advances in our understanding of the human immune system to develop novel targets of diseases,” says Dr. Brown.

“Jennifer and I are proud to support the revolutionary immunology research at PrIISM,” says Mr. Lipschultz. “We are excited to see how this meaningful work will transform the future of medicine and make a true difference in the lives of patients at Mount Sinai and beyond.”

Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Receives the Prince Mahidol Award, Joining Other World-Renowned Figures in Science and Medicine

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured

Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, as the Representative of His Majesty the King, presenting the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of Medicine to Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD. for the Year 2020 at the Chakri Throne Hall.

Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Director of Mount Sinai Heart and Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital, traveled to Thailand to receive the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of Medicine on Thursday, January 27, where he was honored alongside other renowned figures in science and medicine.

Among those named by Thailand’s Royal Family to receive the Prince Mahidol Award since 1997 are five who subsequently received the Nobel Prize.

In November 2020, Dr. Fuster was named a recipient of the prestigious Prince Mahidol Award in recognition of his international leadership over the past four decades as a clinical scientist, for his breakthrough contributions to cardiovascular medicine, and more recently as an advocate for promoting global cardiovascular health worldwide. The other 2020 recipient, Bernard Pécoul, MD, MPH, Founder and Executive Director, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, received the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of Public Health. He was previously Executive Director for Médecins Sans Frontières. The 2020 awards ceremony was put off due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

In Thailand on Thursday, Dr. Fuster received his award during a special televised ceremony, joining the 2021 recipients of the Prince Mahidol Award: Katalin Karikó, PhD, Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, and Pieter Cullis, PhD, whose work on mRNA technology is used in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

Dr. Karikó, Senior Vice President, BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals and Adjunct Associate Professor, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Weissman, Director of Vaccine Research, Infectious Diseases Division, and Professor, Department of Medicine, also at the Perelman School of Medicine, were recognized for achievements that led to the rapid availability of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, which has saved millions of lives and has become an important tool for the control of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world.

Dr. Cullis, Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, was recognized for making COVID-19 mRNA vaccines possible and for creating a way to safely deliver nucleic acid into cells, which opened up possibilities for various applications of nucleic acid technology for prevention and treatment of many diseases in the future.

In discussing his award, Dr. Fuster said, “Our more recent research is dedicated to understanding the scientific basis of cardiovascular health, including the heart and brain. This award serves as motivation to continue to work toward achieving global cardiovascular health, and I consider it as an honor to all the teams across the world who have helped with these projects.” Dr. Fuster also serves as General Director of the National Center for Cardiovascular Research in Madrid, Spain, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Dr. Fuster is a past president of both the American Heart Association and the World Heart Federation. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, where he served as chair of the Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease, and was a Council member of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Dr. Fuster was also President of the Training Program of the American College of Cardiology.

Dr. Fuster’s research is unparalleled in areas relating to the causes, prevention, and treatment of cardiovascular disease globally, and spans the full range from basic science and molecular biology, through clinical studies and large-scale multinational trials, to population sciences and global medicine. He has 35 worldwide honorary degrees and is the most highly cited Spanish research scientist of all time, according to Google Scholar.

The Prince Mahidol Award Foundation gives out two awards every year for advancing the world’s medical and public health services.

The five past winners of the Prince Mahidol Award who subsequently received the Nobel Prize are:

Barry J. Marshall from Australia, who was conferred the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of Public Health in 2001 for the discovery of the new bacterium identified as Helicobacter pylori that caused severe gastritis and its sensitivity to particular antibacterial drugs. He received the Nobel Prize in the field of Medicine in 2005 for the same discovery.

Harald zur Hausen from Germany, who was conferred the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of Medicine in 2005 for the discovery of the human papilloma virus HPV16 and HPV18 from the cancer tissue and elucidated how the viruses turn normal cells into cancer cells. He received the Nobel Prize in the field of Medicine in 2008 for the same discovery.

Satoshi Omura, who was conferred the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of Medicine in 1997. He is known for the discovery and development of various pharmaceuticals originally occurring in microorganisms. His research group isolated a strain of Streptomyces Avermitilis that produce the anti-parasitical compound avermectin which contributed to the development of the drug ivermectin that is currently used against river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, and other parasitic infections. He received the Nobel Prize in the field of Medicine in 2015 for the same discovery.

Tu You, a member of the China Cooperative Research Group on Qinghaosu and its Derivatives as Antimalarials, who was conferred the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of Medicine in 2003 in an organisational category for the discovery of Qinghaosu as a new drug for treatment of the P.falciparum malaria. She received the Nobel Prize in the field of Medicine in 2015 for the same discovery.

Sir Gregory Paul Winter, who was conferred the Prince Mahidol Award in the field of Medicine in 2016. He was a pioneer in the field of antibody engineering and modification technology. He invented techniques to humanise antibodies for therapeutic uses, which later led to the creation of cutting-edge therapeutic drugs. He received the Nobel Prize in the field of Chemistry in 2018 for the same discovery.

From left: The Prince Mahidol Award Laureates 2021 in the Field of Medicine, Pieter Cullis, PhD, Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, and Katalin Karikó, PhD; and The Prince Mahidol Award Laureates 2020 in the Field of Medicine, Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, and in the Field of Public Health, Bernard Pécoul, MD, PhD, at the Chakri Throne Hall in the Grand Palace on January 27, 2022.

Fourth Clinical Climate Change Conference at Mount Sinai Addresses the Health Effects of the Climate Crisis and Improving Patient Care

Updated on Mar 5, 2024 | Community, Featured

The Fourth Clinical Climate Change Conference, held virtually on January 7, 2022, provided a path forward for the health care community to address the health effects of the climate crisis and improve patient care through state-of-the-science research and practical, evidence-based tools. This annual continuing medical education conference at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was attended by more than 250 physicians, medical students, researchers, and allied community leaders from across the United States.

Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, MD, highlighted in her keynote address the importance of focusing on equity in climate and health policy as communities of color suffer disproportionately and are more likely to face other crises, such as poverty.

Vulnerable groups that experience poverty and lack access to health-promoting community infrastructure, housing, and clinical care are often also at a heightened risk of climate-related exposures such as increased temperature, air pollution, and extreme weather events. Dr. Levine emphasized the critical role the health care community must play in addressing social determinants of health through partnership with stakeholders outside of medicine, particularly in areas such as housing, food access, environmental protection, environmental justice, employment and economic opportunity, and transportation.

“Health equity is central to our discussions of climate change, and climate change is not the first threat that these communities have to face. It is one of many,” said Dr. Levine, who completed her residency in pediatrics and adolescent medicine at Mount Sinai and stayed on as a faculty member from 1988 to 1993. “There are other crises that people face, including poverty, that we need to understand as clinicians to provide the best care possible to individuals. We need to explore new ways to understand and to address the social determinants of health if we are going to have meaningful progress.”

She added, “While everyone will have some form of mental health response to climate change, there are populations that are uniquely vulnerable…We need to take a health equity lens to this. For some communities, climate change is not a concern of the future…It’s a concern of today.”

J. Marshall Shepherd, PhD, an international expert on climate and health at the University of Georgia, noted that citizens must move beyond the perspective that climate change is a future concern. Extreme weather is happening now and will continue to increase in frequency and scale.

Robert Wright, MD, MPH, co-director of the Mount Sinai Institute for Exposomic Research, the convening organization, emphasized that climate change affects virtually all aspects of the environment, which in turn affects health. Because of this complexity, understanding the impact of climate on health requires measuring the environment on a grand scale repeatedly over time, he said.

Age, poverty, where you live, and pre-existing health conditions compound the impacts of climate-related environmental exposures. With sophisticated new technologies, we are now able to collect rich exposure data on diverse parameters of our environment, such as air pollution, weather, and temperature in geospatial time, according to Dr. Wright, who is Ethel H. Wise Chair of the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health.

This year’s conference theme focused on mental health, and a major takeaway was that clinicians must prioritize their own well-being to be effective. It is well documented that clinicians are experiencing increased stress due to both the climate crisis and job-related pressures, leading to increased burnout and exodus from clinical care.

“Clinicians are also personally impacted by climate change. We also can feel anxious about the future, feel anger, frustration about the world and what future generations are inheriting from us. We must develop our own resiliency, our own practices, to notice how climate change impacts our own mental well-being and seek assistance as needed,” said Dr. Levine. “We need to consider the pressures that climate change can also put on our provider community. This is of concern of myself and the Surgeon General. We need to think of the supports that clinicians need to continue to provide care during the climate crisis.”

‘Eco-anxiety,’ a term used to describe climate-related stress, coupled with the ongoing stressors of the pandemic and social inequities, must be recognized and managed to protect the health of both providers and patients, experts say.

Young people are also affected by eco-anxiety, and they identify the future of the planet’s health as a key concern. A recent survey of thousands of teenagers and young adults in 10 countries found that more than half were extremely or very worried about climate change and felt sad, anxious, angry, or powerless. That highlights the need for increased supports to improve resiliency and coping in young people, who are often at the forefront of climate change advocacy.

Health providers can take action in both their professional and personal lives by being environmentally conscious and connecting with others to build community to affect positive change. As trusted messengers, they are well positioned to educate patients on the health consequences of climate change and to advocate for solutions that protect and promote the health of all people.

The 2022 conference was organized by the Mount Sinai Institute for Exposomic Research. Conference supporters included the American Lung Association, the American Public Health Association, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Center for Earth Ethics at the Union Theological Seminary, Columbia’s Global Consortium on Climate in Health Education, the Yale Program on Health Care Environmental Sustainability, the Center for Health Equity, Education and Advocacy at the Cambridge Health Alliance and the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.

Watch the conference videos.

Watch videos from the conference

Learn more about the Mount Sinai Institute for Exposomic Research

Have Questions About COVID-19 Tests? Here Are Some Answers

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | COVID-19, Featured, Your Health

As the highly contagious Omicron variant continues to spread, more and more people are thinking about getting tested for COVID-19. You may be feeling under the weather, or you may have recently spent time with someone who has COVID-19. You may want to get tested before seeing family or friends, or attending a large indoor gathering.

With a number of different tests available, many people have questions about which test to take, when to take it, and what their results may mean. In this Q&A, Aaron E. Glatt, MD, MACP, FIDSA, FSHEA, Chair of the Department of Medicine and Chief of Infectious Diseases at Mount Sinai South Nassau, explains how you can decide which test may meet your needs.

What types of tests are available? What are the differences between them?

There are a number of different ways that we can diagnose a COVID-19 infection. None of them are perfect, and each has their benefits and disadvantages. Let’s break it into two groups of testing: We have antigen tests, and we have PCR tests. Each of them has a role, and each of them has a slightly different situation where they may be preferable.

So we start off with the antigen test. This is what most people use at home. These are the tests you can buy at your local pharmacy. They are often referred to as “rapid tests.” If an at-home test is positive, and you are symptomatic, it’s highly likely that you have a COVID-19 infection. If you are taking this test because you’ve been exposed to somebody with COVID-19, it is also likely that a positive test is reliable. On the other hand, when these tests are negative, they’re just not good enough to necessarily rule out that a person does not in fact have COVID.

The other type of test is a PCR test. There are many different types of PCR tests. Most PCR tests will take 24 to 48 hours to return your results. PCR tests are somewhat more sensitive than rapid antigen tests. If your PCR test result is positive, that will almost always represent a true positive, meaning it is accurate and you do have COVID-19 or that you had it in the recent past. The issue with these tests, however, is that they’re so specific. That means they can remain positive even when somebody is no longer contagious, and they no longer have COVID-19. But in general, the PCR tests are very good. They can tell you with a little bit more certainty that you did have an exposure to COVID-19.

How do I know which test I should take?

We usually recommend you talk to your health care provider if you’re concerned that you may have COVID-19. If you have symptoms or if you were exposed to COVID, then you may want to go get an at-home rapid test. If your rapid test is positive, you should talk to your doctor to decide what, if any, additional tests need to be done. If you have more serious symptoms, you should be evaluated by a doctor no matter what the antigen or PCR test shows.

When should I get tested?

If you have symptoms, you should get tested right away. If you’re being tested because of an exposure, we usually recommend waiting at least two days, or 48 hours, before testing. There are always exceptions to the rule. But that’s the general recommendation.

How reliable are at-home tests?

There are different at-home tests, and some of them are more reliable than others. If you have symptoms, or you think there’s a likelihood that you do in fact have COVID, then these tests can be very useful if they’re positive.

If my test result is positive, what should I do?

The first thing to do is contact your doctor. This could be a telehealth visit. We want you reaching out to your provider and getting expert medical advice from the person who knows you and your medical history. Not everyone has the same level of risk. It’s best to have a health care provider decide what evaluation needs to be done, and what potential treatments, additional testing, and ongoing monitoring you may need.

If my test result is positive, when should I retest?

There isn’t necessarily a reason to retest if you’re positive and your clinical care is being handled and you’re doing better. Typically, we wait a certain length of time to decide that a person is no longer contagious, and that they can stop isolating. That may be a five day period of time, assuming your symptoms are resolving and you have no fever. After that, we recommend that you be extremely careful in terms of distancing and wearing a mask whenever you’re going indoors among other people for at least an additional five days. For somebody who’s having a little bit more of a complicated clinical course—for example, they are having symptoms that aren’t resolving or they’re having persistent fevers—then you can’t assume that in five days, they’re no longer contagious. This should be something that your doctor helps you decide based upon your particular symptoms and medical history.

If my test result is negative, does that mean I’m good to go?

Anyone who has symptoms should not be going into public gatherings with other people. If they do have to go indoors, they should be wearing a mask and distancing as much as possible. A negative test doesn’t mean you don’t have COVID, and it doesn’t mean you can’t be contagious. Even if it’s not COVID, it might be the flu or some other virus that could be contagious to other people. As a result, you should really try and protect everybody from whatever illness you may have.

If I have symptoms, but my test was negative, what should I do?

In that situation, there are additional tests that you can take, such as testing for the flu or additional testing for COVID-19. You should talk to your doctor if you have ongoing symptoms and you have a negative COVID test. It can be a telehealth discussion. You should speak with your doctor, who knows you, and knows your background and your risk factors for serious illness.

Why are testing and vaccination still important?

It’s very important that patients realize that while the press reports that Omicron is a mild illness—you just get a little bit of flu-like symptoms, and you’re fine—that’s not really true for everybody. If you’re not vaccinated, Omicron can cause severe illness. Even in vaccinated people, if they’re not boosted, they are still more likely to get into trouble. So the best recommendation at this point is to get a booster dose of the vaccine if you’ve gotten vaccinated, and certainly, if you haven’t been vaccinated, this is still a great time to get vaccinated.

A misconception is that the vaccines don’t work because there are breakthrough infections. Nothing can be further from the truth. These vaccines are phenomenally successful in preventing death, in preventing serious illness, in preventing admissions to the hospital. Omicron, while “milder” than the Delta variant, can still cause all of these things for some people. It’s critically important for everyone to protect themselves, protect their loved ones, and protect their community by getting vaccinated.

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: Annual State of the School Celebrates Research, Education, and Service to the Community

Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured

The annual State of the School was presented on Wednesday, January 26, by Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System.

The annual presentation provides an update on Icahn Mount Sinai’s recent accomplishments in advancing medical research, educating the future leaders of health care, and serving the community. During the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the presentation was again delivered on video. It can be viewed here.

The State of the School included initiatives aimed at improving the lives of patients, which include new areas of investment in research and newly established Institutes, Departments, and Centers. Dr. Charney also highlighted the School’s focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, and efforts to make Icahn Mount Sinai a more equitable and anti-racist institution.

The past year included new opportunities for the members of the Icahn Mount Sinai community to support patients and the advancement of medicine. During the State of the School, there was a video tribute to the heroes within the School who contributed to Mount Sinai’s COVID-19 response.

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