May 22, 2018 | Community, Diversity and Inclusion, Inside
Shaquana Mackey, second from left, accepted donations from members of the HOLA Employee Resource Group at the Corporate Services Center, including the chapter’sleaders, Shawn Lee, left, and Francis Pabon, fourth from left.
Women at a shelter in Brooklyn received spirit-lifting donations thanks to a collaboration of the nonprofit Bowery Residents’ Committee (BRC) and HOLA, the Heritage of Latino Alliance Employee Resource Group at the Mount Sinai Health System. In the effort, called the “Purse Project,” HOLA members collected gently used purses and tote bags and filled them with toiletries. The donations were accepted in April at the Mount Sinai Corporate Services Center by Shaquana Mackey, Clinical Supervisor of BRC’s Lexington Avenue Women’s Residence, which houses 103 women. Ms. Mackey also gave a brief talk on what it means to be homeless in New York City. “A lot of people you wouldn’t think live in a shelter, do live in a shelter, because life happens,” Ms. Mackey said. “You could lose your job today; you could lose your spouse; your house could burn down.” Donations of funds, supplies, or volunteers’ time are always welcome, she said, adding, “Whatever you can give, our ladies are grateful.”
Nov 20, 2017 | Cardiology, Community, Inside
In October, Mount Sinai Heart opened its new Cardiac Intensive Care services unit at The Mount Sinai Hospital, complete with 10 critical care beds for acutely ill patients and 10 step-down beds. The unit was designed by a team of physicians, nurses, and administrative leaders from Mount Sinai Heart, whose goal was to deliver efficient, high-quality care while maximizing patient safety. “We think this is the optimal environment for patients and families,” says Beth Oliver, DNP, RN, Senior Vice President of Cardiac Services, Mount Sinai Health System. “A single cardiac team now cares for the patient from admission to the critical care unit through discharge, guaranteeing continuity of care in its truest sense.” The new cardiac unit allows patients to be discharged directly from step-down beds, which minimizes in-hospital transfers.
Attending the ribbon-cutting event were, from left: Shirish Huprikar, MD, Chief Medical Officer, The Mount Sinai Hospital; David L. Reich, MD, President and Chief Operating Officer, The Mount Sinai Hospital; Samin K. Sharma, MD, Director, Clinical and Interventional Cardiology; Matthew Tomey, MD, Assistant Professor, Medicine (Cardiology); Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Director, Mount Sinai Heart; Annapoorna Kini, MD, Director, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory; Roopa Kohli-Seth, MD, Director, Institute for Critical Care Medicine; Umesh Gidwani, MD, Associate Professor, Medicine (Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine); Adel M. Bassily-Marcus, MD, Associate Professor, Surgery; and Kimberley Ennis, DNP, ANP-BC, Chief Nurse Manager, Critical Care Unit.
Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Inside, Patient Stories
Tomer Avraham, MD, with Cherie Marcus
It was Tuesday evening, May 17, 2016, and Cherie Marcus, 62, had stopped at a corner on Central Park West, waiting to cross the street. Suddenly, a runaway car struck a taxi, which then rammed into Ms. Marcus, crushing her legs. When she was taken by ambulance to Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, orthopaedic surgeon David A. Forsh, MD, thought she had a 50-50 chance of losing one or both legs. Today, after nine surgeries and several months of physical and occupational therapy, Ms. Marcus—with her legs preserved—is walking almost normally.
Dr. Forsh, Chief of Orthopaedic Trauma, Mount Sinai Health System, and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, performed surgery to control the bleeding, irrigate her wounds, and place external hardware to stabilize the tibia and fibula in both legs. A week later, when the soft tissue began to heal and some of the muscle swelling had subsided, he operated to insert rods and plates in both legs.
After assessing the extensive bone loss and muscle and soft tissue damage, he called on Tomer Avraham, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery (Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery). Dr. Avraham would begin a series of seven tissue transfer surgeries on Memorial Day weekend.
“We had to take skin and fat from her thigh, transfer it with its blood supply, connect the small blood vessels under the microscope, and do repeated rounds of skin grafting,” Dr. Avraham says. Throughout the process, doctors warned Ms. Marcus that infection might set in and
complications might still necessitate amputations. “I’ve seen worse injuries, but not on anybody who ended up keeping their legs,” Dr. Avraham recalls.
During the long process, patient and physician bonded, Ms. Marcus remembers. “I had complete faith in Dr. Avraham,” she says. “He was very approachable and easy to communicate with. He answered all our questions and he was always in touch with my husband.” She also recalls, “I’ll never forget the day when, after weeks of emphasizing that amputation could not be ruled out, Dr. Avraham walked into my hospital room, smiled, and said, ‘I think we have a win.’”
Throughout the process, Ms. Marcus remained optimistic, which her doctors believe played a role in her recovery. Also key to her recovery was the diligence with which she pursued physical and occupational therapy at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s to help her relearn to walk. “They were all so helpful,” she recalls of the staff. “Everyone was so positive, the nurses’ aides, the people who took my food order, even the maintenance people. And, I can’t say enough nice things about the nurses.”
On the mend in July, Ms. Marcus was transferred to an inpatient rehabilitation facility, where she spent six weeks, followed by physical therapy at home for a month. She recently completed two months of outpatient physical therapy and plans to continue strengthening and conditioning at a local gym in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where she lives. In addition to her doctors, she is grateful to her supportive network of family, friends, and colleagues from the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Public Theater, where she worked prior to her accident. “It’s an astounding recovery,” says Dr. Avraham. “She’s an amazing lady.”
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Updated on Jun 30, 2022 | Featured, Inside, Psychiatry, Research
René S. Kahn, MD, PhD
Two world-renowned researchers in brain disease have assumed key leadership roles at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: René S. Kahn, MD, PhD, as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, and Paul Kenny, PhD, as Chair of the Department of Neuroscience. Both men have made significant academic and scientific achievements in their respective fields. Dr. Kahn, the newly appointed Esther and Joseph Klingenstein Professor of Psychiatry, has dedicated his career to studying psychotic disorders, particularly the origins and treatment of schizophrenia. Dr. Kenny, Ward-Coleman Chair in Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, has focused on understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of drug addiction, obesity, and schizophrenia, and developing novel therapeutics that address each.
Dr. Kahn returns to the Mount Sinai Health System after more than 20 years. Most recently, he served as Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Brain Center Rudolf Magnus at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands. The author of 800 research papers and book chapters, he has made major findings that have helped inform clinical work in the field. One of his seminal discoveries was that schizophrenia starts in the early teenage years, earlier than previously thought, and that the first cognitive symptoms usually precede the first psychosis and visit to the psychiatrist by 10 years. “This is very important because we now know if we want to understand the illness and identify people at risk, we have to look much earlier in the process,” says Dr. Kahn.
Using neuroimaging, Dr. Kahn has uncovered progressive changes in the brain over the course of schizophrenia that are linked to its severity. In his new role as Chair, he plans to establish a high risk clinic to identify and treat individuals at an early age who are likely candidates for a range of psychiatric illnesses, as well as drug abuse. “A specialized clinic of this type will have a major impact scientifically, as well as on the overall health care system, and New York’s population, in particular,” he says.
A member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science and a former Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Kahn completed a four-year psychiatry residency at The Mount Sinai Hospital and was appointed to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai faculty in 1992. He conducted schizophrenia research and served as Research Unit Chief at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx, before returning to the Netherlands. For two decades, Dr. Kahn has maintained an adjunct appointment at Mount Sinai to continue his collaborations with faculty members.
“I am delighted that Dr. Kahn is joining us,” says Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. “His medical acumen is evidenced by the honors and accolades awarded to him through his noteworthy career.”
Paul Kenny, PhD
When Dr. Kahn received an endowed professorship at Mount Sinai’s Convocation Ceremony in September, he told the audience that his mentors were Dr. Davis and 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, both of whom have made significant discoveries in neuroscience.
“My two mentors are together,” he said, “having built one of the best medical schools in the United States and probably the world, and I am extremely honored to be part of that.”
Dr. Kenny is a world authority on the neurobiology of addiction and obesity and has advanced the scientific community’s understanding of the mechanisms of both disorders. His recent work in tobacco addiction has centered on a group of proteins known as nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) that consist of five subunits, each encoded by its own unique gene. (Previous research by a Mount Sinai scientist identified a mutation in one of those genes, CHRNA5, which appears to influence whether someone becomes a smoker, and the severity of his or her habit.)
“My lab played an important role in understanding how the CHRNA5 gene works, and that has opened a new window on nicotinic-receptor signaling in the brain and how it influences behavior,” says Dr. Kenny. People who carry CHRNA5 variants are more likely to smoke, not because they enjoy nicotine more than others, but because they are resistant to adverse effects of the drug, according to his team’s findings.
The Kenny Laboratory is currently investigating the molecular and cellular mechanisms of CHRNA5 in nicotine addiction and also developing novel smoking-cessation therapeutics based on a better understanding of how this gene variant works.
His interests also include the role for novel regulatory RNA elements in brain cells called microRNAs in drug addiction and schizophrenia. Dr. Kenny says, “We were among the first to show that microRNAs in the brain can influence behavior and may play a role in various aspects of neuropsychiatric disorders.” Under Dr. Kenny’s direction, Mount Sinai’s Experimental Therapeutics Institute is actively exploring the novel therapeutic potential of microRNAs.
“Dr. Kenny is an international authority on applying the tools of molecular biology to neuropharmacology and using the new insights obtained to develop novel treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders. He has served as an inspiring leader of Mount Sinai’s Experimental
Therapeutics Institute, and the Department of Neuroscience will be fortunate to benefit from his innovative leadership,” says Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience, Director of The Friedman Brain Institute, and Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Prior to joining Mount Sinai in 2013, Dr. Kenny served as Associate Professor of Molecular Therapeutics, and Director of the Medications Development Program in Substance-Related Disorders at The Scripps Research Institute’s Jupiter, Florida, campus. He completed his doctorate in Neuroscience at King’s College London, and pursued his postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.
