Katleen Lozada, MD, one of the first Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai students to sign up for early graduation.

Seventy-seven Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai students earned their medical degrees early on Wednesday, April 15, at a time when Mount Sinai Health System hospitals are experiencing extraordinary and unprecedented demands brought on by the COVID-19 public health crisis. Among them are 19 graduates who matched at Mount Sinai for residency and volunteered to join the Mount Sinai Medical Corps, helping to relieve a strained medical system while answering the call by New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo for “all hands on deck” to assist in any way.

On that day, a number of the early graduates participated in an informal ceremony—from the safety of their homes and conducted on Zoom—reciting the modern Hippocratic Oath and marking this milestone with faculty, staff, and friends and family, all in virtual attendance. Led by Staci Leisman, MD, FASN, Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology), and Medical Education, each graduate made a commitment to “respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk,” to “respect the privacy of my patients,” to “tread with care in matters of life and death,” and to “prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to a cure.”

Staci Leisman, MD, FASN, Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology), and Medical Education, led students and faculty in reciting the modern Hippocratic Oath during a virtual ceremony.

The opportunity to graduate from the Icahn School of Medicine a month early—as well as the decision to begin clinical work in the Health System through the Mount Sinai Medical Corps—was strictly voluntary. The Medical Corps is a newly formed training program that gives these newest MDs an opportunity to provide vitally needed support services to an overburdened staff—entering orders, for example, scribing, relaying updates to patient families, and facilitating discharge planning. Also joining Mount Sinai graduates in these efforts are 12 graduates from other medical schools who have matched at Mount Sinai for residency.

“We are extremely proud of the dedication and altruism of our students and their passion for helping our patients and communities at this historic time,” said David Muller, MD, Dean for Medical Education, and Professor and Marietta and Charles C. Morchand Chair in Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Katleen Lozada was one of the first Icahn School of Medicine students to sign up for early graduation. “This is definitely not how I envisioned my graduation, but I just really want to help alleviate the intense pressure on clinical staff working on the front lines. What lies ahead is somewhat unknown, but most of all I am looking forward to helping in whatever capacity is needed,” said Dr. Lozada, who matched in the Emergency Medicine residency. The program has training sites at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Beth Israel—and at Elmhurst Hospital, which is part of a New York City integrated system of health care facilities that has been particularly hard-hit with COVID-19 cases.

“I would much rather be working and helping during this crisis than sitting at home and watching other able-bodied medical professionals take the brunt of the disaster,” added Dr. Lozada, whose mother is a pediatrician.

Olamide Omidele, MD

Also among the early graduates was Olamide Omidele—now Olamide Omidele, MD—a native of Nigeria who was matched to Mount Sinai as a urology resident. “The health care system is currently strained, and I am hoping that I can provide relief in whatever way is needed,” said Dr. Omidele. “I draw my strength, optimism, and comfort about joining the workforce from my parents, who are the main reason I chose to go into medicine.”

For Dr. Lozada, who is a first-generation New Yorker raised in the Bronx, the opportunity to assist the city she loves was also a motivating factor. “What’s even more exciting is that I’ll have the honor of serving the New York City community I grew up with and am awed by every day,” she said. “I can’t wait to get started!”

Students, faculty, staff, family, and friends participated in the virtual ceremony.

From left: Shravani Pathak (MS3), Samuel Paci (MS3), and PhD candidates Mark Roberto and Sindhura Gopinath, members of the PPE Task Force, inventoried PPE stock, coordinated with different floors, and distributed PPE across Mount Sinai West based on need.

In an extraordinary effort across the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and its Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in New York City, 200 students and postdoctoral fellows have volunteered more than 6,100 hours during a three-week period and continue to assist the Mount Sinai Health System during the staggering challenges of the COVID-19 crisis. As members of the Sinai Student Workforce, they have made an impact in a wide range of areas, from sourcing, acquiring and assembling personal protective equipment (PPE), to supporting clinical trials. An additional 450 student volunteers have since joined the effort.

Students are organized into task force teams working in the following areas: PPE, pharmacy, telehealth, administrative, operations, labs, and morale. The six-member COVID-19 Student Volunteer Leadership Team—Alexandra Agathis (MS3), Ben Asriel (MS4), Rohini Bahethi (MS3), James Blum (Scholarly Year), Zina Huxley-Reicher (MS4), and Shravani Pathak (MS3)—meets regularly with administration leadership to receive, triage, and coordinate requests from throughout the Health System. “Our students have become an essential part of the support system Mount Sinai needs to save lives and care for the communities it serves,” says David Muller, MD, Dean for Medical Education, and Professor and Marietta and Charles C. Morchand Chair in Medical Education.

Following is a snapshot of what they have accomplished.

The PPE Task Force, led by Annie Arrighi-Allisan (MS3) and Stephen Russell (MS3), sourced and acquired nearly 3,000 N95 masks, nearly 9,000 surgical masks, and 400 gowns. They assembled more than 1,500 durable, reusable face shields from 3M and distributed them to front-line health care providers, fitted staff with protective masks, and played an instrumental role in the distribution of 750,000 single-use face shields. Students worked in around-the-clock shifts to assemble more than 200 PPE go-bags for residents working at Elmhurst Hospital—which is part of a New York City integrated system of health care facilities that has been particularly hard-hit with COVID-19 cases, and with which Mount Sinai has an affiliation. In addition, the group trained more than 50 students to help fit clinical staff with new models of N95 respirators.

The Operations Task Force, led by Alexandra Capellini (MS2) and Christopher Park (MS3), delivered vital equipment, a task that requires unloading deliveries and assembling IV poles. One team assisted in rapidly engineering a method to transform 200 ResMed VPAP ST machines as a donation from Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of Tesla, Inc., as patient ventilators. They additionally helped write the assembly guide and operation instructions and assemble hundreds of units. Other teams provided support on clinical trials and promoted blood donations among their eligible classmates and peers.

From left: Jeremy Nussbaum (MS3), Marc Casale (MS3), Meygan Lackey (MS4), and Rebecca Rinehart (MS3) took inventory of COVID-19 medications, alerted staff of shortages, and distributed critical medications to hospital floors at Mount Sinai Beth Israel.

“This has been an intense, eye-opening experience and, for the first time, I’ve felt I was doing my small part to help with the response to the pandemic,” says postdoctoral fellow Dan Filipescu, PhD. “Prior to this, I had no idea how the day-to-day operations of a clinical trial worked, or the amount of effort that goes into caring for COVID-19 patients.”

Approximately 300 student volunteers from the Telehealth Task Force provided and obtained patient information—calling them with test results, calling hospitalized COVID-19 patients to gather information regarding emergency contacts, and triaging the palliative care hotline. Students were trained to know when to answer questions and when to refer them to their superiors. Using an online chat platform, they triaged patients with potential COVID-19 symptoms—providing them with additional information about the virus and how to self-isolate, and arranging virtual appointments with physicians, or sending them to the emergency room if necessary. To date, students have had more than 2,320 triage chats and test result updates with patients. “As future physicians, we entered this profession in order to help people,” says Harinee Maiyuran (MS4) who, with Sidra Ibad (MS1) leads the Telehealth Task Force. “Though we are unable to engage in direct clinical care, coordinating Telehealth has allowed me to not only participate but feel useful in these weeks of uncertainty and fear, and it has allowed me to give back to the New York City community that has become my home.”

Pharmacy was the first task force to send volunteers throughout the Mount Sinai Health System. Led by Benjamin Liu (MS3), the team has been troubleshooting Pyxis loading to help resolve medication supply shortfalls. When students at Mount Sinai Beth Israel made pharmacy leadership aware of a dwindling supply of Azithromycin, pharmacists were able to recommend a different medication for some patients to conserve their supply. Volunteers in the leadership suite assisted the Health System pharmacy director in researching treatment guidelines and protocols, and in reviewing charts to understand the impacts of the COVID-19 protocols.

Members of the Administrative Task Force, led by Christopher Ferrer (MS3) and Phillip Groden (MS3), handled remote medical scribe work and assisted outpatient practices with transitioning patients to Telehealth appointments. Working with the Department of Clinical Innovation, they reprogrammed tablets in every room and unit to allow for teleconferencing between patients, families, and staff. They have also been fielding offers of vital supplies and PPE and acquiring them for the frontlines. A group of student volunteers working with Materials Management leadership developed a system of creating inventories of crucial PPE supplies, leading to improvements in efficiency.

More than 40 student volunteers on the Labs Task Force, led by Michael Fernando (PhD2) and Maddie O’Brien (PhD2), have triaged more than 500 incoming requests for serum antibody testing. Working with the departments of Microbiology and Pathology, they have contacted approximately 200 donors with their results, and scheduled approximately 300 new participants prioritized for potential plasma donation. Their most recent initiative has 50 volunteers screening COVID-19 patients to assist the Operations team to prioritize candidates for plasma treatment.

Melissa Hill (MS3), left, and Sarah MacLean (MS3), learned that “it is impossible to breathe when wearing N95s correctly—and staff have to do it all day long.” They were members of a team that brought N95s and other PPE to Mount Sinai West.

As staff and volunteers throughout the Mount Sinai Health System work long hours under increasingly stressful conditions, keeping up morale plays a key role in the fight against coronavirus. The Morale Task Force, led by Ms. Arrighi-Allisan, Ella Cohen (MS1), and Katie Donovan (MS3), is charged with boosting morale among student volunteers and the greater Mount Sinai community. They have coordinated meal deliveries three days a week to all students remaining in nearby apartments, with leftovers going to residents, nurses, and other staff at The Mount Sinai Hospital. They distributed health kits containing a thermometer, pulse oximeter, a mask, and acetaminophen to students who are ill. They also fostered a sense of community through social media and blogs that highlight the achievements of student volunteers and have created an initiative to write letters to residents of nursing homes and other skilled nursing facilities.

Collaboration among peers extends beyond the Mount Sinai community and includes medical students from around the country. Students from the University of California, San Francisco, tweeted a seven-minute video to health care workers in New York City, showing solidarity, thanking them for their heroic efforts, and offering words of encouragement. “I am in awe of the way everyone has come together to fight this pandemic and all the hard work my peers have put into volunteering,” says Ms. Pathak. “I love collaborating with students from other schools as they reach out to me about how they can develop structures like our workforce in preparation for when the pandemic affects their communities.”

Adds Mr. Park about his experience on the Operations Task Force, “I think a lot of us are learning about the real meaning of resilience and adaptability by living it. We know we’re making a huge difference because we can see it. I am both inspired but also unsurprised by the student response, because this is the standard I knew that our student body functioned at and would strive for.”