The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM), is an American medical school in the New York City borough of Manhattan in the state of New York. Chartered by Mount Sinai Hospital in 1963, the ISMMS is one of the foremost medical schools in the United States, ranking 20th in research according to U.S. News & World Report, 18th in NIH funding among U.S Medical Schools (2014), and 3rd in NIH funding per primary investigator.
ISMMS and the Mount Sinai Hospital occupy a four-block area adjacent to Central Park on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, with architecture designed by I. M. Pei. ISMMS and Mount Sinai Hospital make up the Mount Sinai Medical Center, of which Kenneth L. Davis, MD, is the president and CEO. Dennis Charney, MD, the current Dean of the School of Medicine, became the Dean of Research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 2004, later becoming the Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs, finally succeeding Kenneth L. Davis as Dean of the school in 2007.
In 2012–13, the Mount Sinai Medical Center was recognized on the U.S. News & World Report "Best Hospitals Honor Roll," ranking 14th among the approximately 5,000 hospitals in the US with 11 nationally ranked specialties including cancer, geriatrics, gastroenterology, cardiology and heart surgery, otolaryngology, rehabilitation, diabetes and endocrinology, neurology and neurosurgery, gynecology, urology, and kidney disorders.
The first official proposal for the establishment of a medical school was made to the Mount Sinai Hospital's trustees in January 1958. The school's philosophy was defined by Hans Popper, Horace Hodes, Alexander Gutman, Paul Klemperer, George Baehr, Gustave L. Levy, and Alfred Stern, among others. Milton Steinbach was the school's first president.
In 1968, MSSM commenced its first class and soon became known as one of the leading medical schools in the U.S., with Mount Sinai Hospital gaining recognition for its laboratories and advances in patient care and the discovery of diseases. The City University of New York (CUNY) granted MSSM's degrees.
In 1999, MSSM changed university affiliations from CUNY to New York University (NYU) but did not merge its operations with the New York University School of Medicine.
This affiliation change took place as part of the merger in 1998 of Mount Sinai and NYU medical centers to create the Mount Sinai-NYU Medical Center and Health System. In 2007, Mount Sinai Medical Center's Boards of Trustees approved the termination of the academic affiliation between MSSM and NYU. In 2010, MSSM was accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and became an independent degree-granting institution.
On November 14, 2012, it was announced that Mount Sinai School of Medicine would be renamed Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in honor of New York businessman and philanthropist Carl Icahn.
Writing for The Boston Globe on 14 October 2007, Scott Allen reported the issue of patient abuse and problems with human resources management at Mount Sinai by Dr. Jack M. Gorman who was Department Chairman of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai. Allen stated that; "... officials at McLean learned that Gorman had, like so many patients at the renowned psychiatric hospital, attempted suicide. But their initial sympathy for a sick man turned to horror when they learned, from a legal document delivered in mid-May, why he had taken such a desperate measure. The married father of two had brought a shameful secret with him to Massachusetts: He had engaged in a long-term sexual relationship with a New York patient... Gorman, 55, inspired great hope when McLean and Partners announced that they had lured him away from New York City's Mount Sinai School of Medicine in October 2005... It was Gorman's decision to contact the New York Board of Professional Medical Conduct that finally brought the episode to public attention. Earlier this month, the board finally acted on what Gorman told them, posting on its website that his medical license had been indefinitely suspended for 'inappropriate sexual contact' with a patient."
The issue of human resources management between nurses and doctors at Mount Sinai hospital was reported by Jose Martinez on April 20, 2010 in the New York Daily News. As stated by Martinez: "A Catholic nurse was forced to assist in an abortion at Mount Sinai Medical Center over her strenuous objections, a lawsuit filed Friday charges. Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, who works in the operating room at the Manhattan hospital, contends that her boss ordered her to assist in the May 2009 abortion of a 22-week-old fetus or face charges of 'insubordination and patient abandonment.'"
In January 2013 David L. Reich was the first openly gay medical doctor named Interim President of Mount Sinai Hospital as reported by The New York Times; in October of the same year he was named President. On November 24, 2002, The New York Times reported the commitment ceremony of Reich to Keith Loren Marran stating that: "Keith Loren Marran Jr. and Dr. David Louis Reich are to celebrate their partnership today with a commitment ceremony at the Bloom Ballroom in Manhattan. Judge Paul G. Feinman of New York City Civil Court in Manhattan will officiate."
James McKinley writing for The New York Times reported abuse issue investigations dealing with human resources management at Mount Sinai Hospital on March 24, 2016 when a doctor was brought to court for abuse of several patients. As stated by McKinley: "A former doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan was arraigned on Thursday on charges of sexually abusing four women who came into the emergency room there, touching their breasts for no medical reason and, in one case, drugging, groping and masturbating on a patient. The physician, Dr. David H. Newman, pleaded not guilty before Justice Michael J. Obus in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to one count of first-degree sexual abuse and four counts of third-degree sexual abuse. He remains free on bail. 'Four young women who came to the hospital for medical treatment were sexually abused by the very doctor entrusted with their care,' the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said in a statement."
Dennis S. Charney, the current Dean of Mount Sinai, graduated from medical school at Penn State in 1977 and completed his residency in Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. A fellowship in Biological Psychiatry was completed at the Connecticut Medical Health Center. Charney was shot and wounded as he left a deli in his home town of Chappaqua, New York, early on the morning of August 29, 2016. Hengjun Chao, a former Mount Sinai faculty member who had been fired for cause in 2010, was arrested and charged with attempted murder. As reported by Jonah Bromwich in the New York Times, "A former faculty member at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine who had been fired shot the school’s dean outside a popular deli in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Monday, apparently in an act of revenge, the authorities said... Mount Sinai officials confirmed that the dean, Dr. Dennis S. Charney, 65, of Chappaqua, was one of the victims. The name of the other victim was not released. 'This is an extremely disturbing event,' Dr. Kenneth L. Davis, the chief executive of the Mount Sinai Health System, said in a statement. 'Fortunately, Dr. Charney’s injuries are not life-threatening, and we expect he will fully recover.'"
ISMMS publishes the Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine: A Journal of Translational and Personalized Medicine six times a year.
ISMMS's medical curriculum is based on the standard division of medical education in the United States (U.S.): the former two years of study are confined to the medical sciences, the latter to the study of clinical sciences. The first and second years at MSSM are strictly pass/fail; the third and fourth years feature clinical rotations at Mount Sinai Hospital as well as affiliate hospitals – including Elmhurst Hospital Center, the Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens, and James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx.
ISMMS's quadruplet missions (quality education, patient care, research, and community service) follow the "commitment of serving science," and the majority of students take part in some aspect of community service. Notably, this participation includes The East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership (EHHOP), which was developed by the students of MSSM to create a health partnership between the East Harlem community and the MSSM, providing quality health care, regardless of ability to pay, to uninsured residents of East Harlem.
Since 1987, the ISMMS has also featured a unique early-admissions program, The Humanities and Medicine Program, which guaranteed students admitted to the program a place in the medical school. These students, known colloquially as "HuMeds," applied during the fall of their sophomore year in college or university and did not take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). HuMeds made up about 25% of each year's ISMMS medical class. In 2013, the Humanities and Medicine program was expanded into the FlexMed program. Students admitted to the ISMMS via FlexMed will be able to pursue any major and will be required to take additional coursework in ethics, statistics, and health policy in lieu of or in addition to several of the traditional pre-med requirements. The school plans to recruit half of each incoming class through the FlexMed program.
ISMMS's student body is diverse, consisting of 17.9% underrepresented minorities (URM) and 53.6% women. The entering class of 2010 included 59 colleges, most heavily represented by Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, UPenn, Duke, Princeton, Brown, Cornell, and Dartmouth. One of the most selective medical schools in the United States, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai received 5471 applicants for 140 spots in the class of 2018. Matriculating students boast an average MCAT score of 36 and an undergraduate GPA of 3.79.
Individual educational programs are accredited through the appropriate bodies, including but not limited to LCME, CEPH, ACCME and ACGME. All degree-granting programs are registered with the New York State Department of Education.
ISMMS is currently ranked 20th overall among research based medical schools in the 2016 edition of U.S. News & World Report.ISMMS is ranked 1st in geriatrics by U.S. News & World Report, and was the first U.S. medical school to establish a Department of Geriatrics.ISMMS is ranked 17th among medical schools in the U.S. receiving NIH grants, and 3rd in NIH research dollars per faculty member.ISMMS's PhD program is ranked 3rd among 53 U.S. institutions in a survey conducted by Academic Analytics in 2008 and 7th on the organization’s list of top 20 specialized research universities in biomedical health sciences.ISMMS was ranked fifth on a list of top 10 most innovative organizations in big data by Fast Company in 2014.The Scientist magazine ranked ISMMS 15th overall in its 2009 “Best Places to Work in Academia” survey.According to an American Medical Student Association survey, ISMMS is one of eight medical schools in the U.S. to receive an "A" for its conflicts of interest policies relating to pharmaceutical industry marketing.ISMMS was the sole recipient of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)'s Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Service in 2009.ISMMS has been named to the first-ever President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.The Mount Sinai Simulation HELPS Center (Human Emulation, Education and Evaluation Lab for Patient Safety and Professional Study), housed in the Department of Anesthesiology, recently received accreditation by the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Simulation Education Program and is one of only 18 programs in the country to earn this distinction.ISMMS's Morchand Center for Clinical Competence, a state-of-the-art standardized patient center, was featured on the television show Seinfeld, where Cosmo Kramer plays a patient actor with gonorrhea.Within its Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology, ISMMS was the first to offer a class allowing medical students to fully sequence their genomes, and was also the first CLIA-certified next-generation sequencing lab in New York City.Notable alumni and faculty
Stuart A. Aaronson, internationally recognized cancer biologist and the Jane B. and Jack R. Aron Professor of Neoplastic Diseases and Chairman of Oncological SciencesDavid H. Adams, co-creator of the Carpentier-McCarthy-Adams IMR ETlogix Ring and the Carpentier-Edwards Physio II degenerative annuloplasty ringJacob M. Appel, novelist and short story authorMichael Arthur, Vice-Chancellor of the University of LeedsAmbati Balamurali, youngest person ever to become a doctor, according to Guinness Book of RecordsJoshua B. Bederson, Professor and Chief of Neurosurgery and the first neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai to receive an NIH R01 grant as principal investigatorSolomon Berson, American physician and scientist whose discoveries, mostly together with Rosalyn Yalow, caused major advances in clinical biochemistryTamir Bloom, Olympic epee fencerMichael J. Bronson, Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and creator of the Vision Total Hip SystemMichael L. Brodman, Chair and Professor of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science and pioneer in the field of urogynecologySteven J. Burakoff, cancer specialist, author of both Therepeutic Immunology (2001) and Graft-Vs.-Host Disease: Immunology, Pathophysiology, and Treatment (1990), and the Director of Mount Sinai Hospital's Cancer InstituteRobert Neil Butler, physician, gerontologist, psychiatrist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and the first director of the National Institute on AgingAlain F. Carpentier, hailed by the President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery as the father of modern mitral valve repairThomas C. Chalmers, famous for his role in the development of the randomized controlled trial and meta-analysis in medical researchDennis S. Charney, current Dean of the school and one of the world's leading experts in the neurobiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders.Sophie Clarke, winner of Survivor: South Pacific reality television game showMichelle Copeland, D.M.D., M.D., is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Copeland is known particularly for her expertise on ankle liposuction and the treatment of gynecomastia.Kenneth L. Davis, current Chairman and C.E.O. of Mount Sinai Medical Center, who developed what is now the most widely used tool to test the efficacy of treatments for Alzheimer's Disease.Charles DeLisi, former Professor and Chair of Biomathematical Sciences and Professor of Molecular Biology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiBurton Drayer, President of Mount Sinai Hospital (2003–2008) and President of Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)Marta Filizola, computational biophysicist, Dean of The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Raja M. Flores, thoracic surgeon and Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery who was instrumental in creating VATS lobectomy as the standard in the surgical treatment of lung cancerSandra Fong, Olympic sport shooterValentin Fuster, the only cardiologist to receive all four major research awards from the world's four major cardiovascular organizations.Jeffrey Scott Flier, Dean of Harvard Medical SchoolScott L. Friedman, President of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and pioneering researcher in the field of Hepatic FibrosisJanice Gabrilove, inventor of patent describing initial isolation and characterization of human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)Steven K. Galson, Former Surgeon General of the United StatesEric M. Genden, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology, who performed the first successful jaw transplant in New York StateIsabelle M. Germano, Professor of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Oncological Sciences pioneer of image-guided neurosurgery, radiosurgery, and gene therapy for brain tumors.Stanley E. Gitlow, Professor of Medicine and Former President of the American Society of Addiction MedicineStuart Gitlow, President of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and Executive Director of the Annenberg Physician Training Program in Addictive Disease at Mount SinaiRandall B. Griepp, Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery who collaborated with Norman Shumway in the development of the first successful heart transplant procedures in the U.S.Jack Peter Green, Founding Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology; world-renowned expert in molecular pharmacology; established the first methods for measuring Ach in the brain, and the evidence for Histamine as a neurotransmitterAndrew C. Hecht, Assistant Professor of both Orthopaedic Surgery and Neurosurgery and spine surgical consultant to the New York Jets, the New York Islanders and the New York DragonsRavi Iyengar, Professor and founder of the Iyengar Laboratory, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiEthylin Wang Jabs, pediatrician and medical geneticist who identified the first human mutation in a homeobox-containing geneAndy S. Jagoda, Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and editor or author of 13 books, including The Good Housekeeping Family First Aid Book (ISBN 0688178944) and the textbook Neurologic Emergencies (ISBN 0071402926)Jeffrey P. Koplan, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Annapoorna Kini, Associate Professor of Cardiology and co-author of Definitions of acute coronary syndromes in Hurst's The HeartDaniel M. Labow, Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Associate Professor of Surgery and Surgical Oncology reputable for his work with cytoreductive and intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemoperfusion (HIPEC)Philip J. Landrigan, one of the world's leading advocates of children's healthJeffrey Laitman, anatomist and physical anthropologist, Distinguished Professor of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Professor and Director of the Center for Anatomy and Functional Morphology, Professor of Otolaryngology and Professor of Medical Education.Mark G. Lebwohl, the Sol and Clara Kest Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dermatology and author of the leading book on dermatologic therapy, Treatment of Skin Disease (ISBN 0323036031).Ihor R. Lemischka, an internationally recognized stem cell biologist and stem cell research advocateDerek LeRoith, Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease and Director of the Metabolism Institute and the first to demonstrate the link between insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and cancerBlair Lewis, Clinical Professor of Gastroenterology and instrumental in developing the International Conference of Capsule Endoscopy's consensus statement for clinical application of capsule endoscopyBarry A. Love, cardiologist specializing in pediatric and congenital heart problems and Director of Mount Sinai's Congenital Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and Director of the Pediatric Electrophysiology ServiceHenry Zvi Lothane, Clinical Professor, internationally recognized psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and historian of psychoanalysis.Michael L. Marin, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery, the first in the United States to perform minimally invasive aortic aneurysm surgery and one of the first to perform a successful stent graft procedureSean E. McCance, Clinical Professor of Orthopaedics and listed as one of the "Best Doctors" for spinal fusion in Money MagazineDiane E. Meier, geriatrician and MacArthur Fellow, 2008David Muller, co-founder of the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program, the largest academic physician home visiting program in the U.S.Eric J. Nestler, Chairman of the Department of Neuroscience and Director of the Friedman Brain Institute at the Mount Sinai Medical CenterMichael Palese, Medical Director of the Department of Urology and among the few surgeons in the United States trained in open, laparoscopic and robotic kidney procedures.Peter Palese, world-renowned expert on influenza.Giulio Maria Pasinetti, Saunders Family Chair and Professor of Neurology. Program Director, Center for Molecular Integrative Neuroresilience at the Icahn School of Medicine.Sean P. Pinney, current Director of both the Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Program and the Pulmonary Hypertension ProgramKristjan T. Ragnarsson, physiatrist and Professor and Chair of Rehabilitation Medicine with an international reputation in the rehabilitation of individuals with disorders of the central nervous systemDavid L. Reich, Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and a pioneer in the use of electronic medical recordsJohn Rowe, CEO and executive chairman of Aetna from 2000 to 2006Alan L. Schiller, Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology and member of the Board of Directors of the National Space Biomedical Research InstituteBernd Schröppel, transplant nephrologist and Assistant Professor of NephrologyAryeh Shander, recognized in 1997 by Time magazine as one of America's "Heroes of Medicine"Samin K. Sharma, Director of Interventional Cardiology at Mount Sinai HeartRené Simard, co-author of On Being Human: Where Ethics, Medicine and Spirituality ConvergeJoseph Sonnabend, physician, scientist and HIV/AIDS researcher, notable for pioneering community-based research, the propagation of safe sex to prevent infection, and an early and unconventional multifactorial model of AIDSPaul Stelzer, professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, who helped establish the Ross procedure as the standard for aortic valve replacementHarel Weinstein, Professor of Pharmacology and subsequently Chairman of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics; established the Structural Biology Program which evolved into the Department of Structural Biology; pioneered Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at the institution and established the first Institute for Computational Biomedicine in NYC. Currently Tri-Institutional Professor, Chair of Physiology and Biophysics, and Director of the Institute for Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in NYC.I Michael Leitman, Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Professor, Department of Medical Education, Professor, Department of SurgeryUpinder Singh Bhalla, Neuroscientist, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate
