World Trade Center Health Program Hosts a Delegation From the Netherlands to Discuss Lessons Learned by Caring for 9/11 Responders

Updated on Jul 10, 2024 | Community, Featured

The World Trade Center Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence (CCE) at Mount Sinai recently welcomed occupational medicine physicians and public health advocates from the Netherlands on a study trip to learn about the mental health impact of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 on first responders.

The event, held Tuesday, June 11,  focused on sharing two decades of experience caring for 9/11 responders living with the enduring effects of exposure to psychological trauma and environmental toxins.

Franz van den Nieuwenhof, MD, an occupational medicine physician from VerzuimConsult in the Netherlands, a leading consulting firm providing occupational health support to employers, noted the significant increase in mental health issues among Dutch health care workers following the COVID-19 pandemic, similar to those experienced by responders after 9/11.

“In our search for possible solutions, we came across references to the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to 9/11. This literature emphasized the extensive experience that New York has gained in the treatment and support of PTSD patients since the 9/11 attacks,” he said. “During our quest for new insights, it became clear that the WTC Health Program played a big role in this work, with connections to the expertise of specialists from The Mount Sinai Hospital. We are confident that we can learn much from their approach.”

From left: Franz van den Nieuwenhof, MD, Sandra M. Lowe, MD, and Michael Crane, MD, MPH

Sandra M. Lowe, MD, Associate Professor, Psychiatry, and Environmental Medicine, and Medical Director of the WTC Mental Health Program, delivered a presentation titled “9/11 Responder Mental Health: 20 Years of WTC Health Program Experience,” highlighting the association between disaster exposure and adverse health outcomes.

“Twenty years of research on 9/11 health outcomes has demonstrated not only the clear association between disaster exposure and adverse psychological effects, but also that there are meaningful actions we can take to treat trauma-associated conditions and alleviate suffering in disaster-exposed populations,” she said.

The WTC Health Program, a component of the Mount Sinai Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health, is the largest such center in the country and proudly cares for more than 25,000 responders at its Manhattan, Staten Island, Suffern, and Yonkers, New York, locations.

The panel also featured Agata Bednarska, MSW, Outreach and Education Manager, and Rachel Yehoda, MPH, Health Literacy Manager, who presented on mental health outreach and communication strategies. The meeting concluded with a discussion led by Kathryn Marrone, LCSWR, Director of Social Work, Amy Cushing-Savvi, LCSW, Assistant Director of Social Work, and Massielle Morales-Miller, LCSW, Social Work Supervisor, focusing on health monitoring, case management, and the role of psychosocial support in workplace wellness.

“To provide the highest standard of care to our responders, we have established a comprehensive case management and care coordination team,” said Ms. Marrone.

Michael Crane, MD, MPH, Medical Director of the Selikoff Centers, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to share knowledge with international colleagues.

“We hope our lessons learned and best practices will assist in establishing policies and programs around mental health,” he said. “Workplace health promotion programs have proven to be successful, especially when they combine mental and physical health interventions like we do through the WTC Health Program.”

In closing remarks, Dr. Lowe highlighted the WTC Health Program’s critical role caring for 9/11 exposed workers, and its dedication to sharing valuable knowledge.

“Our team is privileged to be part of the WTC Health Program and we are dedicated to contributing the insights we’ve gained to support initiatives that enhance mental health education and services, especially for individuals affected by trauma and chronic occupational stress,” said Dr. Lowe. “It’s a responsibility we take seriously.”

Learn more about the World Trade Center Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence at Mount Sinai

Marsha Sinanan-Vasishta Selected as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing

Updated on Nov 4, 2024 | Featured, Nursing

Marsha Sinanan-Vasishta, DNP, MBA, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, CPXP, FAAN

Marsha Sinanan-Vasishta, DNP, MBA, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, CPXP, FAAN, Chief Nursing Officer, Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West, has been selected as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (AAN). She was recently inducted during a ceremony that took place at the Academy’s annual Health Policy Conference in Washington.

Academy fellows are inducted in recognition of their extraordinary contributions to improve health locally and globally. With nearly 3,000 fellows, AAN comprises nursing’s most accomplished leaders in policy, research, administration, practice, and academia.

Dr. Sinanan-Vasishta has made many contributions to the nursing profession at Mount Sinai and beyond.

A board certified Nurse Executive, Dr. Sinanan-Vasishta was among the first nurses in the United States to earn Certified Patient Experience Professional certification. She co-chairs the Mount Sinai Health System’s Nurses Against Racism Committee to help create and sustain an anti-racist and equitable organization and foster equitable patient care within the communities served by Mount Sinai.

She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the OKB Hope Foundation, which provides health care access to rural populations in Ghana, Africa. She is also the nurse lead for Mount Sinai International Advisory Team’s collaboration with the government of Guyana, South America, to help improve health outcomes within the Guyana Public Hospital Corporation health system.

Dr. Sinanan-Vasishta serves as a voluntary adjunct faculty member of the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing. She is also a member of the Transcultural Nursing Society, the American Nurses Association, the American College of Healthcare Executives, and the International Honor Society for Nursing, and she is a Fellow in the New York Academy of Medicine.

Read more stories about Nursing Excellence

Mount Sinai Recognized for Leading Efforts to Make Health Care More Sustainable

Updated on Jul 8, 2024 | Featured

The Mount Sinai Hospital, East Harlem

Many might not realize that hospitals, in addition to helping care for countless patients and employing many workers, also have a big impact on the environment—from the amount of waste they generate to the greenhouse gas emissions produced by energy use, including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and power for lighting and medical equipment. While not a main contributor to climate change, health care accounts for approximately 8.5 percent of U.S. domestic emissions.

Mount Sinai Health System is leading efforts to reduce the health care industry’s carbon footprint. The Health System recently received multiple Practice Greenhealth 2024 Environmental Excellence Awards, which recognize institutions that have demonstrated leadership in environmental sustainability in health care. The Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai West, and Mount Sinai Beth Israel received the Greenhealth Emerald Award, putting them within the top 20 percent of hospitals leading the way in environmental stewardship.

“We’re being accountable and trying to make an effort to be more sustainable in the care that we deliver,” says Muoi Trinh, MD, Medical Director, Sustainability, Mount Sinai Health System, and Associate Professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, and Cardiovascular Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “We care about our community and our carbon footprint and how we contribute to climate change affects our community in terms of air quality, pollution, and health.”

The Health System also received these awards from Practice Greenhealth, a leading sustainable health care organization:

  • The Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside, Mount Sinai West, and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, received the Greening the OR Recognition Award, which recognizes hospitals that have made substantial progress to reducing the environmental impact from the operating room.
  • Mount Sinai Queens, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, and Mount Sinai Brooklyn received the Partner for Change Award, which recognizes superior performance in environmental sustainability and health systems that have made substantive progress on eliminating mercury.

“The Practice Greenhealth awards are important because they allow us to compare Mount Sinai to others in the industry,” says Dr. Trinh, who leads sustainability initiatives at Mount Sinai Health System. “The awards give us metrics and tell us how we’re performing, so we know what areas we’re doing really well in and where we can improve.”

Slashing greenhouse gases in the operating room furthers Mount Sinai’s pledge to decarbonize health care, a commitment to pursuing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Sector Climate Pledge to reducing emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Mount Sinai has also implemented a recycling program in operating rooms as part of a broader effort to reduce plastics across the Health System.

In cities like New York, where asthma rates are high, making hospitals more sustainable means keeping both the environment, and patients, healthy, since climate change is linked to chronic respiratory and pulmonary disease, according to Dr. Trinh.

“That’s part of the reason why it’s so important that we’ve become more responsible with how we think about how we deliver care,” she says.

Muoi Trinh, MD

A cardiac anesthesiologist for more than a decade, Dr. Trinh has seen firsthand how treating patients in the operating room can increase a hospital’s carbon footprint—from discarded plastic waste containers to anesthesia gases that pollute the air. To fix the problem, she has led efforts to reduce the most harmful anesthesia gases, which can contribute a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions from operating rooms, from Mount Sinai.

“That’s part of the reason I got involved and became a huge advocate of trying to change things,” says Dr. Trinh, who has been Medical Director of Sustainability since April 2023.

Under Dr. Trinh’s leadership, Mount Sinai achieved this aim in two ways—both of which played a role in receiving the Practice Greenhealth 2024 Environmental Excellence Awards. First, the Health System removed desflurane, a greenhouse gas significantly more potent than carbon dioxide, from its inventory of anesthesia agents, and decreased the use of nitrous oxide, another anesthesia agent and potent greenhouse gas, by more than 75 percent. Second, the Health System investigated the piping system used to pump nitrous oxide into operating rooms, finding that most of this gas is lost from the bulk supply prior to reaching the anesthesia machine for clinical use. The Mount Sinai Hospital eliminated this problem at its campus by switching to smaller containers that attach directly to anesthesia machines.

“We’re hoping to continue this project over the course of this next coming year, to limit this loss all together, at all hospitals within the Mount Sinai Health System” says Dr. Trinh.

The next goal is to collect a full inventory of greenhouse gas emissions across the Health System. “Then we can prioritize our projects targeting the most significant ones first,” she says.

Dr. Trinh hopes that by receiving recognition, Mount Sinai can inspire other hospitals throughout the United States to become more sustainable. “Ultimately, the end goal is for hospitals to work collaboratively to reduce emissions from the health care industry as a whole, so we can all be part of the solution,” she says.

Click here to learn more or to get involved in sustainability initiatives at Mount Sinai

Five Medical Students at Icahn School of Medicine Selected as Tillman Scholars, Recognizing the Contributions of Those in the Military

Updated on Jun 28, 2024 | Featured

In 2018, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai set out to welcome a new kind of student into the field of medicine when it established an institutional partnership with the U.S. Navy as a complement to its traditional pathway. This unique partnership, which the school has broadened to include all branches of the military, provides a streamlined pathway for active-duty service members to apply to medical school prior to completing their service commitment.

Borrowing from the school’s popular FlexMed program, which allows college sophomores to apply for early assurance of acceptance into medical school, the military pathway provides a mechanism for recruiting service members while integrating a layer of flexibility to ease the transition from their undergraduate careers.

In just six years since the program’s inception, the school has enrolled 20 military veterans, some of whom have been admitted through the traditional avenue of admissions while others were admitted through the early assurance program. Now the school is celebrating a major milestone: five medical students were named 2024 Tillman scholars by the Pat Tillman Foundation. Last year, three students received this honor.

Considered to be one of the most prestigious and selective scholarship awards for student veterans and spouses of veterans, the Pat Tillman scholarship provides funding to military veterans and spouses to pursue higher education and continue their service in a variety of professions, including health care. In total, nine Icahn Mount Sinai students to date have been named Tillman scholars.

“I am deeply proud of our five students and grateful for their service to our country and beyond. To be honoring the service careers of five veterans with this prestigious award is truly remarkable and a very special milestone for our school,” says David C. Thomas, MD, MS, MHPE, Dean of Medical Education and Chair of the Department of Medical Education at Icahn Mount Sinai.

Pat Tillman, a starting safety for the Arizona Cardinals, distinguished himself in the National Football League when he broke the franchise record for tackles in 2000. When the September 11 terrorist attacks took place, he walked away from professional football and joined the U.S. Army, serving tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2004, he was killed by friendly fire. His family started the Foundation to cultivate the next generation of leaders.

The 2024 Tillman Scholars from Mount Sinai are Pierce Ferriter, Michael Lemonick, Katrina Nietsch, Nicole Parkas, and Rico Pesce.

“We are deeply proud of our partnership with the military and our students, who bring invaluable background and perspective to medicine. Many years ago, we set out to become a welcoming and supportive champion and educator of our country’s distinguished veterans. And this exciting news suggests we are reaching this goal,” says Valerie Parkas, MD, Senior Associate Dean of Admissions and Recruitment, Icahn Mount Sinai.

About the 2024 Tillman Scholars

 

Pierce Ferriter

Former Lieutenant Pierce Ferriter served in the Navy with unique assignments as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Officer in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. After graduating from the United States Naval Academy in 2010, he commanded a platoon and deployed to the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. In Somalia, he supported the Naval Special Warfare Development Group and the Army’s 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta in the actions against Al-Qaeda, disarming explosive devices and destroying terrorist weapons caches.

In 2014, he relocated to Guam and took command of a hostage rescue team planning, rehearsing, and conducting operations in the service of Special Operations Command Pacific. He met his wife, Anna, another naval officer, skydiving in San Diego, and they moved to Spain and got married in 2018. While she served as an EOD Company Commander, he led the Navy’s emergency response bomb squad in Europe. A rising fourth year medical student, he will graduate in 2025 and intends to pursue a residency in orthopedic surgery.

 

Michael Lemonick

Former Navy Lieutenant Michael Lemonick graduated with distinction from the United States Naval Academy in 2015 with a BS in Mathematics. While at Annapolis, he played on the varsity soccer team and completed additional studies in Istanbul, Turkey, and at the London School of Economics. He was inspired to serve others in a career in medicine after watching physicians provide lifesaving care to his parents for prostate cancer and breast cancer, and treating his sister for diabetes. However, it was first important for him to satisfy his competing desire to serve his country.

Following his graduation and commissioning as a Naval Officer, he completed a bilingual master’s degree in international affairs at Sciences Po in Paris, where he was selected as an Émile Boutmy International Scholar. He subsequently served two tours of duty onboard the USS Donald Cook, a guided-missile destroyer stationed in Spain, and accumulated more than 25 months at sea in support of national security objectives in the Europe and the Middle East. After serving as a Naval ROTC instructor at The Military College of South Carolina – The Citadel, he left active duty in September 2023. He is currently a rising second year medical student and aspires to be a surgeon.

 

Katrina Nietsch

Former Lieutenant Commander Katrina Nietsch graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a BS in Quantitative Economics and four varsity letters with the NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse team. Following commissioning, she began military flight training to become a Navy pilot. She received her Naval Aviator “Wings of Gold” in 2014 and deployed around the world flying the C-2 Greyhound, a twin-engine cargo plane. She piloted numerous MEDEVAC missions from aircraft carriers, which galvanized her interest in medicine. Inspired by one particular mission involving a patient needing critical care, she applied to medical school during her tour as an instructor pilot.

She was accepted to Icahn Mount Sinai via the Military Institutional Partnership with Mount Sinai in 2019 but deferred her acceptance to serve a final tour with Naval Special Warfare. She left the Navy in August 2022 after 11 years of service. She has a Masters of Science in Aeronautics and is now a third-year medical student. Her interests include veteran’s health, human rights advocacy, research, and mentorship. She lives with her wife, Jackie, and daughter, Rory, who was born in January. She hopes to match into an orthopedic surgery residency.

 

Nicole Parkas

Nicole Parkas was born and raised in northern New Jersey, where she was a first-generation high school and college graduate. She earned a BS in Biology from Montclair State University in 2016, followed by a BS in Medical Imaging in 2018 and was Valedictorian of the Rutgers University Diagnostic Medical Sonography Program. After graduation, she spent five years as a perinatal sonographer, delivering essential care to high-risk, underserved obstetric and gynecologic populations in New York City and Washington, D.C.

She mentors first-generation college students in New York City and founded a Rutgers Alumni Advocate program aimed at supporting sonographers as they navigate their transition to higher education and the workforce. Her husband, Josiah Parkas, served as a Staff Sergeant in the United States Air Force and is currently pursuing a law degree at Georgetown University Law Center. She is an incoming second-year medical student.

 

Rico Pesce

Former Sergeant Rico Pesce joined the Army at age 19, aiming to serve his country and gain experience before pursuing medicine. After completing rigorous training, including Airborne School and the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program, he became a Special Operations Combat Medic. He was then assigned to the 2nd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

He completed five combat deployments to Afghanistan, serving as Platoon Medic, Company Senior Medic, and Battalion Aid Station Non-commissioned Officer in Charge. He provided point-of-injury care for numerous combat casualties and played a pivotal role in the management of a mass casualty event on base. On two deployments, he was selected for clandestine operations to advise and assist Afghan commandos. He was also the first openly gay Ranger in his unit.

After seven years of service, he was honorably discharged and went on to earn a BA in Computer Science from Columbia University, a joint Master’s in Translational Medicine from the University of California, Berkeley and UCSF, and a Master’s in Biomedical Sciences from New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York. Currently, he is a rising second-year medical student. He plans to become an emergency medicine physician, focusing on innovations in disaster medicine.

Mount Sinai’s Growing Partnership With Indian Health Services in South Dakota

Updated on Jun 27, 2024 | AIGH, Community, Featured

Since 2021, the Emergency Medicine Global Health Division at Mount Sinai has partnered with the Indian Health Service to provide physician and physician assistant staffing, operational assistance, and educational support at the Cheyenne River Health Center in Eagle Butte, South Dakota.

This remote, critical access hospital comprises an emergency department, a 10-bed inpatient unit, and community outpatient center. The Emergency Department serves about 30 patients daily from the local population on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.

“The partnership has evolved from a few intermittent weeks of staffing to the point where we now expect to provide nearly 28 weeks of full-time attending physician staffing this year,” says John Rozehnal, MD, MS, Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, who leads the partnership with Indian Health Services.

John Rozehnal, MD, MS

Mount Sinai Emergency Medicine physicians and other health care providers who participate are given the opportunity to manage a wide range of emergency medical concerns and provide comprehensive critical intervention while developing knowledge of the indigenous culture to enhance their care. Other health care providers include physician assistants and residents, including four Emergency Medicine 2024 graduating residents who supported the partnership.

Recently, the team was successful in assisting with the implementation of a new point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) equipment and programming, including training that has begun with an education project on the placement of ultrasound-guided IV lines, the performance of regional anesthesia, and the use of bedside diagnostic studies helping to assess pregnancies. Without these new services, patients would often require transfer to a hospital more than an hour away.

The growing partnership between Mount Sinai and Indian Health Services includes a variety of quality improvement projects, such as implementing clinical protocols and improving cultural competencies and quality and safety initiatives.

“We look to further integration with the local team at Eagle Butte and to help develop area-wide initiatives to further both teach and learn from the facilities and patients in the Great Plain Area,” says Dr. Rozehnal.

Learn more about the Arnhold Institute for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Learn more about the Emergency Medicine Global Health Division at Mount Sinai

Mount Sinai Morningside’s Innovative Hybrid Operating Room Improves Precision in Minimally Invasive Procedures

Updated on Jun 26, 2024 | Featured

The team of vascular surgeons at Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West work to ensure all available technology is used to benefit patients. From left: Michael Dudkiewicz, MD, James Cornwall, MD, Adam Korayem, MD, PhD, Daniel Han, MD, Robert J. Grossi, MD, and Alan Benvenisty, MD.

The hybrid operating room (OR) represents an important tool to help manage an increasing number of complex vascular and endovascular surgical procedures and at the same time meet the needs of patients seeking less invasive treatments.

“The techniques used in the hybrid OR guarantee a significant reduction in the invasiveness of surgical interventions,” said Daniel K. Han, MD, Chief of Vascular Surgery, Mount Sinai Morningside. “This not only allows the possibility of treatment to patients deemed at high risk for open surgery, it also meets the desire for a low-invasive surgical approach.”

A hybrid operating room is a surgical suite that combines medical imaging and a conventional surgical suite that can be used for both minimally invasive and conventional, or “open”, surgical procedures. The imaging devices allow surgeons to perform surgical procedures through a series of small incisions by enabling the visualization of miniscule body parts such as blood vessels.

The hybrid operating room includes an angiographic platform with advanced imaging systems, such as 3D reconstruction systems and image fusion with vascular navigator tools; an operating table integrated with the movements of the fixed C-arm angiography; and a multimedia monitoring system.

There is also anesthesiology monitoring and supporting tools like ventilators and multi-parametric monitors; complementary diagnostic tools including duplex scan, transesophageal echocardiography, and intravascular ultrasound, and the necessary equipment for carrying out most types of surgical procedures.

“The combination and sophistication of the equipment in the hybrid OR permits an unparalleled level of precision and safety,” said Dr. Han.

“As Mount Sinai Morningside commemorates the one-year anniversary of its hybrid OR, it celebrates groundbreaking achievements and life-saving interventions that have redefined vascular and endovascular care at Mount Sinai Morningside,” he adds. “The increasing level of complexity of the surgical interventions makes it essential to have suitable settings and equipment, capable of providing the highest possible performance.”

When the new operating room opened, Robert Lookstein, MD, Clinical Director and Manager of Interventional Radiology Services, Mount Sinai Health System, and Alan Benvenisty, MD, Site Director of Surgery for Mount Sinai Morningside, ceremoniously christened it by successfully addressing a renal bleed in a patient rushed from the Emergency Department—a promising beginning that heralded a year of successful procedures. There are also hybrid operating rooms at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai West.

“Now, with more than 700 cases performed within the first year, the hybrid OR has become an important resource for patients with complex vascular conditions,” says Dr. Han. “These cases span a diverse spectrum, from carotid artery disease to lower extremity arterial occlusive disease, showcasing the versatility and expertise of the surgical team.” The team offers a wide range of expertise including amputation prevention, care for aortic aneurysms, and treatment of peripheral artery disease and carotid stenosis.

Central to the success of the hybrid OR is the collaboration among various medical disciplines, which includes the perioperative, operative, and radiology teams—vascular surgeons, interventional radiologists, anesthesiologists, nurses, radiology technicians, perfusion technicians and a broad range of support staff.

“These teams have played instrumental roles in ensuring the smooth operation of the hybrid operating room, underscoring the importance of teamwork in delivering high-quality care,” says Dr. Han.

To make an appointment, call Mount Sinai Morningside Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, 440 W. 114th Street, Suite 100, New York, NY 10025, at 212-523-4706.

Learn more about Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at Mount Sinai Morningside

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