The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is ranked among the top 20 medical schools for research in the United States, according to the 2018-2019 U.S. News & World Report “Best Medical Schools” rankings released on Tuesday, March 20. Mount Sinai ranked No. 18 among the 124 medical schools that were measured this year, an improvement of four places over the previous year.

“It is an honor to be recognized as having one of the nation’s best schools and an even greater honor to lead a team of talented faculty and researchers who challenge the limits of science and medicine, seek breakthrough treatments for the most serious medical conditions, and train the next generation of great physicians and scientists,” says 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. “Our School of Medicine strives to be an innovative leader in medicine and science where future leaders are formed in a diverse, inclusive, and high-impact academic environment.” The new rankings were released online in the 2019 edition of U.S. News & World Report “America’s Best Graduate Schools.” The rankings are based on statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research, and students. Criteria used in the medical school rankings include peer assessment surveys, research activity, grade point averages, MCAT scores, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding.

Dr. Charney adds, “This year marks the 50th anniversary of our School of Medicine. Since our inception, we have set out to break the model of medical education and research through a diverse and inclusive student and faculty body, an entrepreneurial vision that disrupts the status quo, a passionate focus on community medicine, and an eye toward solving medical and scientific problems that greatly impact the lives of many. Through the years, our faculty has made many great contributions to medical science, and our talented students continue to take risks, innovate, and push the boundaries of thought to drive change.”

Separate from the U.S. News rankings, the Icahn School of Medicine in 2017 was named one of the top 10 research institutions in the world based on its contributions to published research that is later cited by other organizations in patent development. Those rankings, created by the journal Nature in its Nature Index 2017 Innovation supplement, used a unique set of metrics to determine the key academic players in the world whose ideas may shape tomorrow’s inventions.

Only a few medical schools—Icahn School of Medicine, Stanford University, and the University of California, San Francisco—have earned distinction by multiple indicators: they are U.S. News & World Report top 20 medical schools aligned with top “Honor Roll” hospitals, among the top 15 in NIH funding, and are among the top 10 most innovative research institutions as ranked by Nature. “This reflects a special level of excellence in education, clinical practice, and research,” says Dr. Charney.

Celebrating their matches were, from left: Haran Sivakumar, University of California, San Diego (Family Medicine); Ali P. Subat, University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center (Anesthesiology); Imikomobong “Micky” Ibia, Massachusetts General Hospital (Emergency Medicine); and Stephen Trinidad, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (General Surgery).

At Match Day 2018, graduating medical students opened their envelopes to learn which residency programs they would be attending during the next phase of their training. Joining them were family members, friends, and Mount Sinai Health System physicians and staff, who offered hugs and congratulations.

But first there was an announcement by Peter Gliatto, MD, Senior Associate Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education and Student Affairs, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai: “I’d like to start with a 45-minute lecture and some PowerPoints,” Dr. Gliatto told the anxious students, to laughter and scattered moans. But he quickly made it clear that he was joking. “Actually, I just want to say how proud we all are of you and the amazing things you’ve done for yourselves, for our school, for our city, and for our world. I’m not exaggerating that.”

During the event on Friday, March 16, in the Annenberg West Lobby, 139 graduating students were matched to residency programs throughout the country, including highly competitive ones at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Johns Hopkins Medicine; Massachusetts General Hospital; the University of California, San Francisco Medical

From left: Fatemeh Parvin-Nejad was matched with Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School (General Surgery); Marielle Young with Massachusetts General Hospital (Pediatrics); and Caitlin Pacheco with Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center (Otolaryngology).

Center; and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Thirty-four students will remain within the Mount Sinai Health System to continue all or part of their graduate training. They were among 18,818 students around the nation who participated in this year’s Match Day event, the largest so far. Match Day is managed by the National Resident Matching Program, a nonprofit organization that uses an algorithm to align the preferences of applicants with those of residency programs.

Imikomobong “Micky” Ibia was “really excited and really grateful” to learn that he will study emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He said he chose the field so that he could interact with patients from all walks of life and someday help build “sustainable acute medical care in my birth country of Nigeria.” Fatemeh Parvin-Nejad will go to Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School for training in general surgery, which she finds “fulfilling on many levels” because it allows her to work with her hands and help some of the sickest and most underserved patients.

Benjamin Laitman, PhD, who was matched with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (Otolaryngology), celebrated with his father, Jeffrey T. Laitman, PhD.

Benjamin Laitman was thrilled to be staying at Mount Sinai since it is home in just about every way: He was born at The Mount Sinai Hospital, and over the years at Mount Sinai, his grandfather was a Chair of Neurology; his grandmother attended nursing school; his mother graduated from the School of Medicine; and his father—who attended Match Day with a proud smile—is Jeffrey T. Laitman, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Medical Education and Professor of Otolaryngology. Benjamin Laitman earned his PhD in neuroscience in 2016 and will now train in otolaryngology. He called the surgeons, clinicians, and scientists “masters of the head and neck” in an “amazing” field that intersects with many others.

The class members will receive training in 22 specialties, including 27 graduates in internal medicine; 12 in emergency medicine; 11 in obstetrics and gynecology; and 9 each in general surgery, pediatrics, anesthesiology, and psychiatry. The rest will pursue other specialties, including family medicine and neurology. As its graduates were receiving their matches, the Mount Sinai Health System was extending residency offers to students from around the country. The new residents, who will arrive in July, include graduates of the nation’s top schools, among them Harvard Medical School, the Stanford University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the New York University School of Medicine.

“As the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai celebrates its 50th anniversary, we could not be more proud of our students, who exemplify the School’s culture of innovation, mentoring, clinical excellence, commitment to the community, and biomedical research,” says David Muller, MD, Dean for Medical Education and the Marietta and Charles C. Morchand Chair for Medical Education. “Our students will bring these values and skills to the nation’s best medical programs as they pursue the next phase in their careers.”

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. From a start-up with a first-year class of 36 students, the School is now a 1,200-student research, education, and innovation powerhouse that is ranked 13th among medical schools in the United States for National Institutes of Health funding and second among U.S. medical schools in funding per principal investigator by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

To commemorate this achievement, 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, was interviewed about the School’s commitment to innovation and discovery. Groundbreaking science and a firm commitment to patient care have been the School’s primary objectives for the past 50 years. Dr. Charney aims to continue this perspective into the future.

Says Dr. Charney, “It is our responsibility—the current leadership, faculty, and students—to build on that foundation so that in the next 50 years we accomplish what they did and change the lives of our patients.”