Mount Sinai Science & Medicine Spring/Summer 2010

SPRINg/SUMMER 2010 c3

Spring/Summer 2010

The Magazine of The MounT Sinai Medical cenTer

Mount SinaiSCiEnCE & MEDiCinE

Getting to the Heart

of Cardiovascular Disease

c4 Mount Sinai Science & Medicine

w

Welcome to the cardiovascular health

issue of Science & Medicine, the magazine

of The Mount Sinai Medical Center

PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,

THE MOUNT SINAI MEDICAL CENTER

Kenneth L. Davis, MD

DEAN, MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC

AFFAIRS, THE MOUNT SINAI MEDICAL CENTER

Dennis S. Charney, MD

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, DEVELOPMENT,


Mark Kostegan, FAHP

EDITOR

Celia M. Regan

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Sara Daniels Catherine Reilly

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Erica Cilurzo

CONTRIBUTORS

Philip BerrollNorman GoldbergAndrew LichtensteinKristin LundSima Rabinowitz David RinellaMatthew SeptimusEric P. Wolfe Photography

DESIgN

Two Dogs Design

Mount Sinai Science & Medicine is published twice annuallyby the Office of Development, The Mount Sinai MedicalCenter, for an audience of friends and alumni. We welcomeyour comments: please contact [email protected],or call us at (212) 659-8500.

Visit us on the Web at philanthropy.mountsinai.org

VoluMe i , nuMber 2

Mount SinaiSCiEnCE & MEDiCinE

About our coverValentin Fuster, Md, Phd, photographed by Matthew Septimus.

Director of Mount Sinai Heart, the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health, Dr. Fuster is also the Richard gorlin, MD/Heart Research Foundation Professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He was the President of Science and is now the general Director of the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) in Madrid, Spain. He is Past President of the American Heart Association, Past President of the World Heart Federation, Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences where he serves as Chair of the committee on Preventing the global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease, former member of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Advisory Council, and former Chairman of the Fellowship Training Directors Program of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Fuster is the recipient of 26 honorary doctorates and two major ongoing NIH grants. He has published more than 800 Pubmed articles on the subjects of coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis and thrombosis, and he has become the lead Editor of two major textbooks on cardiology.

Tired? Dr. Fuster isn’t. At Mount Sinai, he sees patients, consults with colleagues, meets with medical students, and tackles an exhausting daily schedule that seems to energize rather than deplete. Read about him on page 12.

Why dedicate this issue to cardiovascular health? Because cardiovascular

disease claims its victims—millions every year—on a global scale, reaching

deeply into every age range and socioeconomic class, and across the gender

line. It’s a pernicious enemy, one that finds and hits its mark with alarming

accuracy, day after day.

At The Mount Sinai Medical Center, we’re training our own sights on this

greedy assassin, with increasing precision—and great success. The Director

of Mount Sinai Heart, Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, is leading a brilliant team,

battling heart disease with an arsenal that includes pioneering technologies,

decades of experience, fresh insights, boundless imagination, and a zest for

discovery.

Whether it’s repairing malfunctioning mitral valves, working to regenerate

heart tissue, or participating in a major research study examining the causes

of pediatric heart failure, Mount Sinai Heart is at the forefront of today’s

treatments and technologies. Armed with top physicians who are performing

first-in-man procedures or going above and beyond the call to care for

patients, Mount Sinai Heart is striving to improve lives.

We welcome your ideas and feedback. Air your views at magazine@

mountsinai.org.

SPRINg/SUMMER 2010 1

ContEntS

2 Message from the President and the Dean

News

3–6 Leading relief efforts in Haiti; Transformational gifts from

Board Chairman May and Trustee Friedman; Drs. Desnick

and Landrigan appointed as Deans; Dr. Davis awarded

for Lifetime of Leadership by Yale University; Dr. gelb

appointed as Director of Children’s Health and Development

Institute; School of Medicine wins prestigious award

Faculty News

7–11 Welcoming new faculty; Prizes and accolades; Dr. Fowler

presented with National Medal of Science by President

Obama; Research roundup

Features The Heart

12 Frontier Man Dr. Valentin Fuster

16 Legacy: Repair, Don’t Replace Dr. David Adams

19 The Heart of the Matter Dr. Samin Sharma

22 Team Work Dr. Eric Rose

26 Breakthrough Regeneration Dr. Roger Hajjar

and Dr. Hina Chaudhry

30 Critical Care: Making History Dr. Vivek Reddy

32 Imagine Dr. Zahi Fayad

36 Repairing the Littlest Hearts Dr. Bruce gelb

Giving

39-44 glickenhaus family names neuroscience lab; Physicians

fund important initiatives; Launching the Societies of Mount

Sinai; and a roundup of celebrations

Mount Sinai Alumni

45–48 The newly formed “Find a Doctor” network; White Coat

Ceremony for first year students; Match Day for graduating

students; Catching up with MSSM grad and Mount Sinai

physician Michael Marin; Alumni weekend news; and a word

from the Alumni Association president

Correction: Science & Medicine inadvertently omitted

Elliot J. Rayfield, MD, former President of The Mount

Sinai Alumni, in the Fall 2009 issue’s coverage of The

Mount Sinai Alumni annual meeting. We regret the error

and extend our apology to Dr. Rayfield.

2 Mount Sinai Science & Medicine

Message from the Presidentand the Dean

The second issue of Mount Sinai’s Science & Medicine magazine has a single theme: the extraordinary news coming out of Mount Sinai Heart, our renowned cardiovascular institute. Under the direction of Dr. Valentin Fuster, Mount Sinai has become an undisputed leader in advancing medical technology and therapeutics that hold the promise of reducing death and disability.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is our most prolific and efficient killer: It takes approximately 800,000 American lives every year and is the leading cause of death worldwide. At Mount Sinai, brilliant clinicians and scientists are dedicated to advancing cardiac care and promoting heart health—and they are dramatically changing the way we diagnose, treat, and think about CVD.

These breakthroughs are unprecedented—and yet the unprecedented is nothing new for Mount Sinai. Throughout its history, Mount Sinai has played a critical role in advancing the understanding, treatment, and prevention of CVD. In 1915, when the study of heart disease was still in its infancy, Mount Sinai set up its first electrocardiographic (EKG) laboratory under the direction of Dr. Bernard S. Oppenheimer, who later received an AMA gold medal for an exhibit describing the EKG work first done at Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai doctors later developed the first successful cardiac stress test, authored the first standard cardiac textbook, pioneered treatment for cardiac arrhythmias, performed key studies in the development and application of such therapies as aspirin, stents, and anticoagulants, and are at the forefront of surgical techniques—such as mitral valve repair—that have vastly improved length and quality of life.

Now, new Mount Sinai discoveries are significantly altering the power of CVD to kill. Science & Medicine highlights just a fraction of the clinical trials and innovative programs taking place at Mount Sinai Heart—work that has made Mount Sinai a world-class destination in the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. We are grateful to our philanthropic community, whose generosity is an inextricable part of our successes.

Kenneth L. Davis, MD Dennis S. Charney, MDPRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ANNE AND JOEL EHRENKRANZ DEAN,

THE MOUNT SINAI MEDICAL CENTER MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS,



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On the Scene: Haitimedical centers to help those affected by the disaster.

Mount Sinai volunteers quickly organized operating rooms and recovery space, coordinated the flow of patients, implemented systems for documentation, materials management and sterile processing, and performed more than 80 surgical procedures—including amputations, facial reconstruction, skin grafts, and fracture repairs.

Mike McCarry, RN, Senior Vice President of Perioperative Services, wrote in an e-mail from Haiti that “our team has been beyond superb, just doing what they do best—caring.”

Kenneth L. Davis, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Mount Sinai Medical Center, commended Mount Sinai’s volunteers for spearheading the international relief effort. Dr. Davis added, “As world citizens, Mount Sinai has a long tradition of delivering medical care for those who need it the most.”

In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, Mount Sinai deployed a team of nearly 30 medical professionals—surgeons, anesthesiologists, a pediatrician, nurses, and surgical

technicians—to deliver lifesaving care to quake victims.

Immediately following news of the disaster, Ernest Benjamin, MD, Chief of the Division of Critical Care in the Department of Surgery and Director of the Surgical ICU, flew to National Hospital in Port-au-Prince under the auspices of Partners in Health, which has provided medical care to resource-limited communities in Haiti for 20 years. The organization deputized Dr. Benjamin as director of critical care and recovery at National Hospital. Dr. Benjamin, accompanied by Jean Louis Dupiton, MD, a graduate of Mount Sinai’s critical care fellowship, and Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, Deputy Special Envoy to Haiti for the United Nations, delivered medications and supplies donated by Mount Sinai.

Responding to Dr. Benjamin’s calls for more aid, Mount Sinai staff mobilized a group of 27 medical professionals from Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Queens, Elmhurst and Queens Hospital Centers, Maimonides, and Beth Israel. On January 20, the volunteers flew to Haiti on a private 41-seat jet generously provided by an anonymous donor. On board with them were 3,000 pounds of medical supplies donated by Mount Sinai.

In Haiti, the Mount Sinai team provided the largest medical presence at National Hospital, and worked alongside teams from Norway, France, and other U.S.

(above) Nearly30

volunteers from Mount

Sinai, including Dr. Abby

Lynn, provided lifesaving

care to quake victims at

National Hospital in Port-

au-Prince.

(right) Mount Sinai’s

volunteers performed

more than 80 surgical

procedures on quake

victims of all ages during

their stay in Haiti.

(top right) Dr. James

gladstone and Dr. Ernest

Benjamin were part of

the Mount Sinai team that

traveled to Haiti in the

aftermath of the January

12 quake.


Two TrusTees Make TransforMaTional GifTs To The CaMpaiGn for MounT sinai

At the annual Trustee dinner in December, Chairman of The Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees, Peter W. May, announced that he and his wife Leni are making a leadership contribution toward The Campaign for Mount Sinai: Special place, Special time. The gift could be as large as $20 million.

“Leni and I are thrilled to make this gift,” said May, who has been Chairman since 2003. Speaking of his recent affirming experience as a patient, as well as the extraordinary gains he’s witnessed in the last several years, May announced, “Mount Sinai is the best it has ever been.”

The Mays’ gift will be used to name the building—5 East 98th Street—in which the Faculty Practice Associates (FPA) is housed. The FPA is a multi-specialty group practice with more than 850 top-rated physicians and surgeons in 37 clinical areas, ranging from primary care to sophisticated disease management and complex surgeries. It handles a volume of over 400,000 patient visits per year and is undergoing rebranding as it secures a national reputation for excellence in outpatient-centered care. The financial support of the Mays will enable Mount Sinai to continue this process.

Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and CEO of The Mount Sinai Medical Center, praised the Mays’ generosity and the direction they are providing during the campaign. “For years, they have contributed their wisdom and guidance to this institution,” he stated. “Their leadership is an inspiration to everyone.”

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In 2009, The Campaign for Mount Sinai received transformational leadership gifts from Peter May, Chairman of the Boards of Trustees,

and his wife, Leni; and Trustee richard FriedMan and his wife, SuSan, that will help advance Mount Sinai’s visionary goals.

Board chairman Peter W. May and Wife, Leni,

announce campaign Leadership gift


Trustee Richard A. Friedman and his wife, Susan, recently committed to a transformational gift of $20 million to the Brain Institute, one of Mount Sinai’s most preeminent translational research centers. The Friedmans have also pledged to garner additional support to help Mount Sinai reach its goal of $100 million to fund the Institute. The Institute, named the Friedman Brain Institute (FBI) in honor of their generosity, will occupy two full floors of the new Center for Science and Medicine when the building is completed in 2012.

According to Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the FBI, the Friedmans’ gift—among the largest in Mount Sinai’s history—will help recruit 20 to 25 basic scientists in such key areas of research as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Dr. Nestler said, “I am humbled and honored by Susan and Richard Friedman’s incredibly strong support of the Brain Institute. This gift gives us the opportunity to build on Mount Sinai’s established strengths in the neurosciences to develop a truly transformative basic-to-clinical neuroscience research program that will be one of the best in the world.”

“Susan and I value our role as philanthropists greatly,” said Richard, who will co-chair the Brain Institute’s Philanthropic Leadership Committee. “Part of that role includes becoming active partners for the charitable causes we support.”

Trustee and Chair of The Campaign for Mount Sinai James S. Tisch praised the Friedmans, saying, “A leadership commitment like this one allows Mount Sinai to move forward with the ambitious plans set forth in its strategic plan. Richard and Susan are exactly the kind of partners that Mount Sinai needs during this exciting time.”

Susan P. and Richard a. Friedman

announce $20 Million campaign gift to Brain Institute

Two TrusTees Make TransforMaTional GifTs To The CaMpaiGn for MounT sinaiIn 2009, The Campaign for Mount Sinai received transformational leadership gifts from Peter May, Chairman of the Boards of Trustees,

and his wife, Leni; and Trustee richard FriedMan and his wife, SuSan, that will help advance Mount Sinai’s visionary goals.


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Desnick New Dean for Genetics and Genomic SciencesRobert J. Desnick, MD, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, was recently appointed Dean for Genetics and Genomics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Under his leadership, Mount Sinai will continue to advance basic and clinical research and facilitate the translation of new discoveries into diagnostics and therapeutics. “Dr. Desnick’s exceptional leadership has played a pivotal role in the development and implementation of Mount Sinai’s genetic/genomic research programs and initiatives,” says Dennis S. Charney, MD, the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Landrigan Appointed Dean for Global HealthPhilip Landrigan, MD, MSc, DIH, the Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Director of Mount Sinai’s Children’s Environmental Health Center, has recently been appointed Dean for Global Health. Internationally recognized pediatrician, epidemiologist, and leader in public health and preventive medicine, Dr. Landrigan has devoted his career to protecting children against environmental threats to health. As Dean, he will oversee the growth of Mount Sinai’s Global Health Program into one of national leadership, positioning Mount Sinai to address the most urgent problems of health and disease confronting the world’s population. For more about Dr. Landrigan, see page 9.

Gelb: New Head of CHDI Bruce D. Gelb, MD, the Arthur J. and Nellie Z. Cohen Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is the newly appointed Director of Mount Sinai’s Child Health and Development Institute. Under Dr. Gelb’s leadership, the Child Health and Development Institute will apply genetics and genomics to make and accelerate major discoveries in understanding, treating, and preventing the most pressing childhood diseases, including allergy and asthma, congenital heart defects, neurodevelopmental disorders, and obesity and diabetes. For more about Dr. Gelb see page 36.

MSSM: Community Commitment HonoredThe Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) honored Mount Sinai School of Medicine with the 2009 Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Service. The award recognizes one institution whose programs surpass the traditional role of academic medicine and reach communities whose needs are not being met through the existing health care system. The AAMC praised Mount Sinai’s Adolescent Health Center, the world’s largest freestanding provider of outpatient adolescent health services; Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors, which annually provides more than 5,000 visits to homebound patients; and the Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs, one of only 13 federally-funded Centers for Excellence for Minority Health in the nation. “Social responsiveness is the foundation of our academic mission,” says David Muller, MD, Dean for Medical Education (left). “Our graduates will devote their professional lives to ensuring that everyone in America receives equal care.”

Davis: “Lifetime of Leadership”Yale University recently honored its alumnus Kenneth L. Davis, Yale BS ’69, MSSM MD ’73, with the 2009 George H. W. Bush ’48 Lifetime of Leadership Award. The award recognized Dr. Davis’s groundbreaking contributions to research in Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia, and his extraordinary leadership as President and CEO of Mount Sinai, recently ranked among the nation’s top 20 hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, earning Honor Roll status.


Joanna Chikwe, MD, who completed an advanced reconstructive-valve fellowship with David H. Adams, MD, at Mount Sinai, returns as Assistant Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Associate Program Director of the Residency Program in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Dr. Chikwe, who trained at Oxford University and completed her residency at the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals in London, will have the distinction of being Mount Sinai’s first female cardiac surgeon.

Raja M. Flores, MD, joins Mount Sinai on August 1 as Chief of Thoracic Surgery and Director of the Thoracic Surgical Oncology Program. A world-renowned surgeon specializing in mesothelioma, lung cancer, and esophageal cancer, Dr. Flores has one of the lowest complication rates with esophagectomy in the U.S. and is a leading international educator on VATS lobectomy, a minimally invasive approach for the treatment of lung cancer. He established the current program for this procedure at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he was Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery. His landmark study, “Extrapleural Pneumonectomy versus Pleurectomy Decortication in the management of malignant pleural mesothelioma,” has changed the surgical management of pleural mesothelioma.

Sanders S. Florman, MD, returns to Mount Sinai as the new Director of Mount Sinai Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute. A leader in multi-organ and abdominal transplantation and complex hepatobiliary surgery, Dr. Florman helped direct the efforts to rebuild Tulane University Hospital’s transplant program after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. Dr. Florman previously completed a fellowship and held a faculty position at Mount Sinai before going to Tulane.

James M. Gallo, PharmD, PhD has joined Mount Sinai School of Medicine as Professor of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics. Dr. Gallo’s area of specialty is preclinical and clinical pharmacological research aimed at improving anticancer drug therapy through pharmacokinetics and the development of novel drug delivery strategies. He has previously worked at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Most recently, Dr. Gallo served as Professor and Director of the Bioanalytical and Pharmacokinetic Center of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Fels Institute of Cancer Research at Temple University School of Pharmacy and Medicine, where his research was funded by two NIH grants.

Yasmin L. Hurd, PhD, has been appointed Director of the MD/PhD program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Hurd currently is a Professor of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience; Chief of the Center of Excellence in Mood and Motivation at the Friedman Brain Institute; and Head of Mount Sinai’s Minority Health Research Committee. Dr. Hurd is a renowned researcher on addiction and related psychiatric disorders. She uses a translational approach to study the neurobiology of the human brain. In her new role as Director, Dr. Hurd plans to further enhance and integrate translational research into the students’ training.

William B. Inabnet, MD, recently joined Mount Sinai as Chief of the Division of Metabolic, Endocrine, and Minimally Invasive Surgery. Since his arrival, Dr. Inabnet has already performed Mount Sinai’s first endoscopic transaxillary thyroidectomy. This novel technique, which involves making an incision below the patient’s armpit, leaving no neck scars, was also the first non-robotic transaxillary thyroidectomy performed in New York State. Dr. Inabnet, who learned the procedure while serving as a Visiting Professor at the Korean College of Surgery in Seoul, is currently building an exchange program with Yonsei Hospital to advance thyroid surgery at Mount Sinai.

FaCulty nEwSNew Faculty and Appointments


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Michael H.J. Ohlmeyer, PhD, recently joined Mount Sinai School of Medicine as an Associate Professor in the Department of Structural and Chemical Biology. Dr. Ohlmeyer will help establish and develop a new institutional Medicinal Chemistry Program within the Experimental Therapeutic Institute. The program will advance small molecule discovery research for mechanism-based research and develop new therapeutics for intractable human diseases, particularly cancer. Dr. Ohlmeyer previously co-founded Pharmacopeia Inc., a biotech company located in Princeton, New Jersey.

Elisa Port, MD, FACS, is joining the Tisch Cancer Institute as a surgeon specializing in the care and treatment of breast cancer. Dr. Port, an alumna of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, arrives from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She has extensive experience with the sentinel-node biopsy technique and has published research on sentinel-node biopsy in male breast cancer patients. Her current research focuses on the role of positron emission tomography (PET) scanning in patients with breast cancer, and she was awarded a grant from the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

E. Premkumar (Prem) Reddy, PhD, has joined MSSM as Professor of Oncological Sciences and Structural and Chemical Biology, and Director of Cancer Experimental Therapeutics for The Tisch Cancer Institute. A pioneer in cancer biology, Dr. Reddy has studied the molecular basis of cancer for more than 30 years. While working at the National Cancer Institute, he made several seminal discoveries that provided key insights into the molecular basis of cancer. Dr. Reddy has published more than 200 scientific papers and, in 2000, was ranked among the top 0.5 percent of most frequently cited researchers in the world by the Institute of Scientific Information.

Kenneth Rosenzweig, MD, a renowned physician-scientist who specializes in treating lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma, has joined Mount Sinai as Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology. Dr. Rosenzweig’s work has led to new methods for delivering precise doses of radiation to lung tumors, allowing physicians to safely increase the radiation dose, shorten treatment, and spare healthy tissue. An accomplished educator, he was named “Teacher of the Year” by the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology. He has worked at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center since completing his training in 1997.

Yvonne Saenger, MD has joined Mount Sinai as Assistant Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology) and Dermatology. Dr. Saenger will be studying immunotherapy for melanoma in lab models, with a focus on the role of dendritic cells. Dr. Saenger previously studied cancer vaccines at John Hopkins University in Baltimore and received her training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Lisa M. Satlin, MD, has been appointed Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Satlin, an internationally-renowned physician-scientist who specializes in pediatric nephrology, has served with distinction as Chief of Mount Sinai’s Division of Pediatric Nephrology since 1997. Dr. Satlin runs an active National Institutes of Health-sponsored laboratory that studies the regulation of salt transport in the kidney in health and disease and has made several important discoveries in this area. She is also an elected member of the Society for Pediatric Research, the American Pediatric Society, and the Association of American Physicians.

Samuel Sidi, PhD, recently joined Mount Sinai as a principal investigator with The Tisch Cancer Institute and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Developmental and Regenerative Biology. Dr. Sidi completed his postdoctoral training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and has been an Instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sidi’s postdoctoral research focused on “Genetic Dissection of Targeted Cancer Therapeutics in Zebrafish.” In 2009, he received the Claudia Adams Barr Award in Cancer Research.

Yaron Tomer, MD, will return to Mount Sinai as Vice Chair of Research in the Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine. Dr. Tomer previously graduated from the department’s residency program and completed a fellowship in endocrinology before serving as Assistant Professor at Mount Sinai. He arrives from the University of Cincinnati, where he was a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism. Dr. Tomer rejoins a growing and successful department, currently ranked 14th among all departments of medicine in the nation in funding from the National Institutes of Health.

FaCulty nEwS


Faculty RecognitionA Roundup of Recent Prizes and Accolades

On October 7, 2009, President Obama presented Joanna Fowler, Phd, Professor of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Senior Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, with the National Medal of Science, the United States’ highest honor for outstanding achievement in the sciences. One of 9 researchers presented with the National Medal of Science, Dr. Fowler was selected by a committee that was personally chosen by President Obama. The award recognizes Dr. Fowler’s significant contributions to brain research. Dr. Fowler was also presented with the National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemistry in 2009.

President Obama recognized Benjamin R. tenOever, Phd, Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, as one of 100 young scientists to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. This award, the highest honor a young researcher can receive, includes a grant from the U.S. government for $1 million over the next five years. Dr. tenOever was nominated by the U.S. Department of Defense, one of nine federal departments and agencies responsible for selecting award recipients. Innovative research and community service are the main criteria used in the selection process. Dr. tenOever was also selected as a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences, which supports the promising research of young investigators.

Philip J. Landrigan, Md, Msc, dIH, was awarded the 2009 Stephen Smith Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Public Health by the New York Academy of Medicine. The award honors those who have made significant contributions to health policy, public health, medicine, and scientific research throughout their careers. Dr. Landrigan is the Ethel W. Wise Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventative Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics, Director of Mount Sinai’s Children’s Environmental Health Center, and the new Dean for Global Health. He is also the leader of the National Children’s Study, the largest-ever study of children’s health and the environment in the country.

david Muller, Md, Dean for Medical Education and Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Education at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, was one of four physicians in the U.S. to receive the American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation’s Pride in the Profession Award. After completing his residency at Mount Sinai, Dr. Muller co-founded and directed Mount Sinai’s Visiting Doctors Program, which pairs physician volunteers with homebound patients in East and Central Harlem. In addition, two Mount Sinai students were honored with AMA Leadership Awards: Robert E. Accordino, founder of an organization dedicated to the education and care of people with autism, and Nicholas O. Meo, director of a free health clinic for the uninsured residents of East Harlem.

evan L. Flatow, Md, Chairman and Professor in the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopaedics, received the Arthritis Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Orthopaedic Surgery in November 2009. Dr. Flatow (shown at right) was chosen for his leadership in the field of orthopaedic surgery and the treatment of shoulder arthritis.

In two separate White

House events, President

Barack Obama presented

Dr. Joanna Fowler (above,

right, with President

Obama) with the National

Medal of Science; Dr.

Benjamin tenOever

(far left, with presenter

John Holdren, science

advisor to the President)

was among 100 young

scientists who received

the Presidential Early

Career Award (center).


Drs. Charney and Nestler Receive Axelrod Mentorship Award Each year, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology presents the Julius Axelrod Mentorship Award to an ACNP member who has made outstanding contributions to neuropsychopharmacology by mentoring and developing young scientists into leaders in the field.

In 2009, two Mount Sinai physician-scientists earned this distinction. Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of the Medical Center, and Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience and Director of the Friedman Brain Institute, were honored with the award in recognition of their commitment to training the next generation of scientists in the fields of neurology, neuroscience, psychiatry, and pharmacology.

“Understanding and mapping the brain is the next great frontier in science. What we learn about the brain over the next fifty years will revolutionize how we treat brain-related injuries and illnesses,” says Dr. Nestler. “Dr. Charney and I believe in training our students to engage in and lead this process of discovery from the earliest opportunity.”

FaCulty nEwS

IN MeMORIAM

Robert Bendheim, a Life Member of The Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees, died on August 21, 2009. Serving on

the Board since 1950, Mr. Bendheim was the longest serving member. Both individually and through the Leon

Lowenstein Foundation, Inc., his philanthropy has made a lasting and significant impact on Mount Sinai. Mr.

Bendheim was the former president and chairman of The Lowenstein Company, a major textile firm, which

manufactured apparel and industrial fabrics, and Wamsutta and Pacific home furnishings. Mr. Bendheim

started with the company in 1946, and served as its chief executive officer from 1972 until 1985. During this

same period, Mr. Bendheim was also an officer and director of the Leon Lowenstein Foundation, Inc., serving

as its president since 1976. Mr. Bendheim’s legacy will live on through The Robert and John M. Bendheim

Parkinson’s Disease Center and countless other initiatives he supported during his years of affiliation with

Mount Sinai. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife, Jane; to his two daughters, Lynn Bendheim

Thomas and Kim Bendheim; to his step-daughter, Josephone Poole; to his brother, John M. Bendheim; and to his

four grandchildren.

Catherine V. (“Kitty”) gaisman, a member of The Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees for more than 30 years, died

on May 2, 2010. Kitty first became involved with Mount Sinai 70 years ago when she graduated from The

Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing and served overseas as a volunteer nurse with Mount Sinai in WWII.

Following her service, Mrs. gaisman worked as a Nursing Supervisor at the Hospital. In later years, she and her

husband, the late Henry J. gaisman (left, with his wife), continued to partner with Mount Sinai, offering wisdom,

leadership, and support through the Catherine and Henry J. gaisman Foundation. Her extraordinary legacy

included many programs that bear the gaisman name, including the gaisman Medical Intensive Care Unit, the

Catherine gaisman Professorship in Medical Ethics, the gaisman Frontiers of Biomedical Sciences Research

Awards Program, the gaisman Fellowship in Respiratory Research, and the Catherine and Henry J. gaisman

Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine. Mrs. gaisman also created the Applause-O-gram

Program, which honors employees for exceptional service and compassion for patients and their families. On

behalf of Mount Sinai, we extend our heartfelt condolences to her nephew, Eric Waldman, a Mount Sinai Trustee,

and the entire gaisman family.


Roundup: ResearchUsing Stem Cells to Treat Noonan Syndrome

Noonan syndrome is a genetic disease caused by mutations in several genes that encode the proteins cells use to signal from the outer membrane to the nucleus. The disorder affects more than 100,000 people in the U.S., causing short stature, heart problems, mental retardation, and altered facial appearance. To modify this signaling and prevent disease, a unique collaboration among experts in stem cell biology and molecular cardiology is underway at Mount Sinai. Ihor Lemischka, Phd, Director of The Black Family Stem Cell Institute, has teamed up with Bruce gelb, Md, Director of the Child Health and Development Institute, to examine how stem cells generated from cultured skin cells malfunction and lead to developmental disorders, and whether cellular development can be coaxed to function more normally. “The process for reprogramming human skin cells into stem cells is quite new,” says Dr. Lemischka. “We hope to gain a window into early stem cell differentiation and how that leads to Noonan syndrome. Knowing when and where things go wrong could provide us with fundamental insights into biological processes and the pathogeneses of these syndromes.” Dr. Gelb adds, “Without the multi-disciplinary, collaborative environment Mount Sinai fosters, neither Dr. Lemischka nor I could have undertaken this project.”

Searching for the Genes Behind Autism

Mount Sinai will participate in a national, multi-center study funded by a $21 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant to investigate the genetic causes of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). These neurodevelopmental disorders affect approximately 6 of every 1,000 children above the age of 3. Mount Sinai will receive $1.2 million to conduct high throughput sequencing—a new high-tech methodology—to pinpoint the genes responsible for the illness. Joseph Buxbaum, Phd, Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Genetics and Genomic Sciences, will lead Mount Sinai’s investigation. The goal is to first sequence 1,000 genes among 1,000 autism cases and compare the findings to 1,000 controls. Subsequently, Dr. Buxbaum’s team plans to replicate the top findings among a larger cohort of 9,000 samples. “Autism appears to have a number of rare, independent mutations,” explains Dr. Buxbaum. “These mutations make it a challenge to identify the genetic sources of autism. However, if we can identify these genes, then we can create mouse models with the same genetic mutations and start to develop therapies to treat this condition. We’ve already developed a few such models. So while this study is about gene discovery, it is really more about creating new therapeutics for disorders that have no treatment.”

Cognition and Aging

A recent arrival to Mount Sinai’s Department of Neuroscience and the Friedman Brain Institute, Mark Baxter, Phd, is making strides in studying cognition and how to improve memory function. Dr. Baxter, who joined Mount Sinai from Oxford University in the United Kingdom, focuses on the neural mechanisms of learning, memory, executive function, and decision-making, as well as the ways in which these mechanisms fail in aging and neuropsychiatric disorders. His research has previously demonstrated the involvement of frontal and temporal cortex, and specific neurotransmitters within those regions—in particular, acetylcholine—in the regulation of higher cognitive functions in health and disease. At Mount Sinai, his current research, which examines the molecular underpinnings of cognition, is aimed at developing new methods of improving cognitive function in humans.

Working Toward a Universal Flu Vaccine

A “headless” version of the influenza virus that protected mice from several different strains of flu may offer a step toward a so-called universal flu vaccine, according to Peter Palese, Md, Professor and Chair of Microbiology at Mount Sinai, and adolfo garcia-Sastre, Md, Director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute, Fischberg Chair in Medicine, and Professor of Microbiology and Medicine. Dr. Palese, Dr. Garcia-Sastre and their colleagues were able to identify a piece of the virus that appears to be the same even among mutated strains—and discovered a way to turn it into a vaccine. “Current influenza vaccines are effective against only a narrow range of influenza virus strains. It is for this reason that new vaccines must be generated and administered each year,” Dr. Palese and Dr. Garcia-Sastre note. “Now we can report progress toward the goal of an influenza virus vaccine which would protect against multiple strains.”


Frontier Man

By Philip Berroll. Photography by Andrew Lichtenstein

The visionary scientist/physician at the heart of Mount Sinai Heart

12


Dr. Valentin Fuster’s workday begins at 5:00 am—but for the first fifteen minutes, he does absolutely nothing except think about the hours ahead of him. “Basically I program the day in terms of priorities,” he says, “to be sure that when I start, I know exactly where I am.”

For Dr. Fuster, the Director of Mount Sinai Heart, this approach makes perfect sense. The 67-year-old cardiologist has a load of responsibilities—as doctor, teacher, researcher, administrator, and activist—that would tax the strength of many younger men. A scientist who strives to understand heart disease, and an advocate bent on preventing it, he maintains his energy and his equilibrium through a mindset that is equal parts optimistic and pragmatic, detail-oriented and focused on the broader view.

And despite a stunning record of achievements, honors and high-level positions, he is a modest, unpretentious man who considers himself “lucky.”

At Mount Sinai, Dr. Fuster presides over a dynamic research program whose innovations in technology and research have placed it in the forefront of the cardiology field. At the same time, his interests and advocacy are global in scope. A former president of both the American Heart Association and the World Heart Federation, he is currently President for Science of the National Centre for Cardiovascular Research in his native Spain; serves as Chair of the Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease for the Institute of Medicine, the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences; and is in demand worldwide as a speaker and advisor on medical, cardiologic and related issues.

“I just want to be on the frontier of science and the application of it—this is where I am the best,” he says. “My affinity is for dealing with the issues very pragmatically, and getting results.”

Integrating disciplines

Dr. Fuster spent 12 years at the Mayo Clinic before joining Mount Sinai in 1982 as chief of the cardiology division. After a four-year hiatus in the early 1990’s when he headed the cardiac unit at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital, he returned to New York to be director of Mount Sinai’s Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and later, director of the Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health. In 2006, when the two entities were merged to form Mount Sinai Heart, Dr. Fuster was the logical choice to be its first leader.

When he talks about Mount Sinai Heart, Dr. Fuster emphasizes a number of aspects. The institute is noteworthy for integrating three disciplines—molecular cardiology, regenerative cardiology and cardiac imaging—but the doctor also praises “the integration of research, clinically applied research, and clinical care.” Equally important, in his view, is that “this is a healthcare system, not a doctors’ system. We value tremendously nurses, nurse practitioners, and technical people, who are very involved in what we do. We also include students who participate in projects—they are extremely helpful. And I think this is what makes this place unique.”

Dr. Fuster also speaks proudly of one of Mount Sinai’s distinctions: sited at the intersection of New York’s most and least affluent zip codes, the medical center serves a diverse patient base. He particularly remembers a day, years ago, shortly after the Joseph H. Hazen outpatient cardiology clinics opened, when the late philanthropist Laurance Rockefeller took note of the variety of patients in the waiting area. “I’ve never seen something more spectacular,” he told Dr. Fuster. “This is absolutely fantastic, what you have achieved here.”

14 Mount Sinai Science & Medicine14 Mount Sinai Science & Medicine

feeling is, ‘It’s not going to happen to me.’ So we have prolonged life two years per decade by treating cardiovascular disease—but we are not preventing it.

“As a result, people are dying later, but at the same time, the amount of disease is increasing. This is extremely costly. For example, the cost of treating cardiovascular disease in 2006 was over $300 billion; ten years before, it was one-third of that. If you understand that you’re spending three times the amount of money as ten years ago, you can trust that the health system will break. It will not be possible to continue like this.

“What we have to do,” he continues, “is understand that preventing disease will make a significant difference. Let’s say, for instance, that we’re treating two twin brothers—one at the time he develops an infarction and the other, preventing the risk factors that may lead to the infarction—for a period of ten years. The cost of treating the infarction is four times the cost of preventing the infarction. And, Dr. Fuster adds, “You cannot get away from the fact that quality of life—preventing events—is very important economically.”

Learning globally, Acting Locally

To drive home this message, Mount Sinai Heart is conducting a number of research projects in the developing world. “We have to go to this part of the world as quickly as possible,” says Dr. Fuster,

“A Disease of Modern Times”

Dr. Fuster is serving at a critical juncture for the field of cardiology—a time, he says, when “there are so many advances, and at the same time, an epidemic.” The statistics are daunting: one in three American adults (80 million people) has one or more types of cardiovascular disease; it is the leading cause of death among women; 17 million people die from it each year around the world. And Dr. Fuster notes that it is a scourge of fairly recent origin. “Centuries ago, autopsies showed very little coronary disease,” he says. “So it’s a disease of modern times.”

He is blunt in his assessment of how “modern times” have contributed to the problem:

“Of the six risk factors that lead to the disease, two we can call ‘mechanical.’ One of these is obesity, and the other is high blood pressure—a disease of the modern world, of tension, of stress—and obesity and blood pressure go together. There are two chemical problems, non-Type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol, which have a lot to do with obesity. And two more factors are extremely modern: smoking and lack of exercise. All of this represents 95 percent of the epidemic.”

His scientific studies and experience have made Dr. Fuster a passionate advocate for preventive medicine—and not just in regard to cardiovascular disease.

“I love this country,” he says, “but the concept of prevention is not part of the culture here. The

All in a day’s

work: Listening,

conferring,

consulting,

empathizing,

concentrating


Sinai was ranked 18th in the category of Heart and Heart Surgery, up from 41st the previous year. “This jump took place because we are doing things that are very advanced,” he says, “in terms of technology, in terms of what we do globally. And I can predict another very significant jump next year.” He also expects future breakthroughs from the institute in bioimaging—“You’ll be able to see physiological processes, not just anatomy and structure, how the body works, how the mind works”—and genetics.

For now, Dr. Fuster continues to juggle his myriad interests and involvements through what he calls “the principle of the four T’s—Time to reflect, discovering your Talents, Transmitting positive feelings, and Tutoring. . . I have two tutors, top people in the fields in which I’m interested, who can tell whether what I’m doing is right or wrong.”

And he is always finding ways to make a positive contribution to both his adopted country and to his native land. He speaks with pride about bringing practically all of the Mount Sinai cardiology trainees and young doctors to his wife’s home town in Spain each year, where he gives about 14 lectures on the latest developments in the field “in the town’s movie theater—it’s like [the Italian film] Cinema Paradiso.” Recently, he also began giving lectures—to large audiences—in Madrid.

“My life,” Dr. Fuster says, “is really about giving back. . .because of how lucky I have been.”

“in time to help prevent what we are already experiencing in Western countries—but also because developing countries can actually help nations like the United States by teaching us a lot that we do not know.”

Indeed, Dr. Fuster becomes especially energized when talking about Mount Sinai Heart’s international projects, which include an initiative in Rwanda—in collaboration with world-renowned economist Dr. Jeffrey Sachs—to help rural villagers combat cardiac disease by reducing their cholesterol and blood pressure, and a project involving 6,000 Colombian children aged three to seven, using the Spanish-language version of “Sesame Street” to teach them the importance of good health.

In another project, on the Caribbean island of Grenada, Dr. Fuster’s researchers are forming peer groups among local residents who smoke or suffer from hypertension or obesity to see whether group members can help each other develop healthier lifestyles. “The point we are trying to make,” says Dr. Fuster, “is that adults only change for two reasons: peer pressure, or the law. In Grenada, we are checking the peer pressure hypothesis.”

“The Four T’s”

Dr. Fuster is proud of Mount Sinai Heart’s growing reputation—in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Hospitals” survey in 2009, Mount

16 Mount Sinai Science & MedicineMount Sinai Science & Medicine16

Two decades in the making, a new Educational Center—

led by Mount Sinai heart surgeon Dr. David Adams—

will spread insights into mitral valve repair throughout

the globe. By Sima Rabinowitz

Legacy: Repair, Don’t Replace


Legacy: Repair, Don’t Replace

They had to write fast and furiously to capture every detail in their hand-written notes. A few decades ago, surgeons who wanted to learn to perform mitral valve reconstruction—a particularly complex and difficult procedure—most often travelled to a small amphitheater in Broussais Hospital in Paris to witness live operations by the father of mitral valve reconstruction, Dr. Alain Carpentier. Good notes and a sharp memory were the only ways to record the details of the surgery—in the beginning there wasn’t so much as a VHS tape available demonstrating mitral valve repair.

Two decades later, Dr. David Adams, the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Professor and Chairman, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, has collaborated with the eminent French surgeon on the invention of landmark mitral valve reconstruction technologies; he and fellow Mount Sinai heart surgeon Dr. Farzan Filsoufi have written the definitive textbook in the field, Carpentier’s Valve Reconstruction. Dr. Adams and his team have also now accumulated the largest video library in the world of advanced techniques in mitral valve reconstruction, hoping to carry on the legacy of Professor Carpentier’s landmark educational programs.

Educational Cornerstone

The mitral valve teaching video library is one component of a much larger initiative: the Mitral Valve Educational Center at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. The Educational Center will be a hub of teaching and training, as well as documenting and disseminating information about mitral valve repair. The cornerstone of the Educational Center will be the new Mitral Education Conference Center, made possible by a generous gift from Juergen and Anke Friedrich through their JAF Foundation.

The Conference Center is a natural extension of Mount Sinai’s international leadership in the field of mitral valve reconstruction. Dr. Adams and his team perform more than 400 mitral valve repair surgeries annually with a success rate of nearly 100 percent, which places them among the world leaders in the field. Last year, patients from 38 different states traveled to The Mount Sinai Medical Center for the procedure.

Closing the practice gap

Currently, nearly two million instances of mitral valve disease (damage to the mitral valve that prevents blood from flowing properly through the heart) are diagnosed annually in the United States alone—and approximately 30 percent of the 150,000 patients treated with surgery undergo procedures for replacement, rather than reconstruction.

Why repair instead of replace? In the majority of cases, repair is a more effective solution. Both U.S. and European guidelines for care of patients with mitral valve disease recognize the advantage of repair over replacement, which include decreased risk of stroke and improved long-term event-free survival.

“This is a serious practice gap,” says Dr. Adams. “We’re in the position not only to help close the gap and increase the repair-over-replacement rate in the U.S. and other parts of the Western world from seventy percent to ninety or ninety-five percent, but also to advance the field of mitral valve repair significantly on a global scale.

International impact

In fact, in developing countries mitral valve disease is the second leading cause of death in children, a result of rheumatic disease. Mount Sinai teams have traveled to Vietnam, Kuala Lumpur, Guatemala, and other

(below left) Dr. David Adams, his mentor

Dr. Alain Carpentier, and Dr. Ani Anyanwu

performing mitral valve repair surgery

(right) Dr. David Adams


countries to perform life-saving surgeries on pediatric patients and to help local hospitals develop their own valve surgery programs; this year, the Adams team is planning trips to centers in Colombia and Thailand.

The new Mitral Education Conference Center will enable Dr. Adams and his colleagues to bring surgeons and physicians to New York from both developed and developing countries for training, as well as to provide extensive online programs and resources for remote access from around the world.

“The Conference Center is a way we can give back,” says Dr. Adams. “We’re taking in patients from across the country, and we’re also giving something back to the world, extending Dr. Carpentier’s legacy and moving the field of mitral valve repair forward.”

The Mitral Valve Education Center, a facility being constructed from existing classroom spaces,

will consist of a state-of-the-art auditorium with seating for 60, advanced technologies for information sharing, and a translation room (to provide interpretation and translation services to non-English speaking program participants). Resources will include the on-line video teaching library; a variety of Web-based training

applications, including live and delayed surgery demo downloads for real-time viewing of procedures; videos of conferences and training sessions; and other interactive components.

It takes a team

New York-based programs will offer a variety of training opportunities and conferences, including fellowships for doctors to spend several months at Mount Sinai, where collaboration is key. “It takes a great team to provide a superior patient experience,” notes Dr. Adams. “It’s not just a single surgeon. Visiting doctors will have a chance to observe our integrated approach to patient care, which is an essential component of our success.” Mount Sinai’s mitral valve team includes echo-cardiographers, anesthesiologists, intensivists, physicians from a number of other specialties, nurses, physician assistants, and a number of other allied health professionals.

Programs and resources available through the Conference Center will be offered for surgeons and physicians at all levels of experience. “Even the world’s great golf pros retain coaches throughout their careers,” says Dr Adams. “From surgeons just out of training, to those who want to become super-specialists in mitral valve reconstruction, every physician needs opportunities to continue learning, improving, and innovating.”

For many years, every leader in mitral valve repair attended Dr. Carpentier’s annual “Club Mitrale” in Paris. “Now, it’s our responsibility to continue Dr. Carpentier’s legacy and educate the next generation of mitral valve surgeons,” Dr. Adams insists. With technologies that will enable access to the most current information and resources from virtually anywhere; innovative training programs; and opportunities to experience Mount Sinai’s team approach to mitral valve patient care, the finest education in mitral valve reconstruction in the world is—hopefully—just a heartbeat away.

Dr. David Adams’ mitral valve repair team

An architectural

rendering of

the Mitral Valve

Education

Conference Center,

which will serve as

a hub of teaching

and training


“I will always be here for you.”

the Heart of the MatterBy Catherine Reilly

Sam Fineman

heard these simple, welcome words

from his heart doctor, Dr. Samin Sharma,

after a procedure saved his life. He

recognized the doctor’s expertise, but

had no idea then of the true depth of

the doctor’s loyalty—nor that it would

extend not just to his own illness, but

also that of his mother.


“I went up to Dr. Sharma and told him,

‘Thank you for saving my life.’

Dr. Sharma looked Sam in the eye and responded,

‘I will always be here for you.’”

iagnosed with diabetes and insulin-dependent since age five, Sam Fineman, a commercial real estate investor, grew up careful. He knew his condition would contribute to additional health problems—like heart disease—as he aged. After suffering a heart attack at age 50 in 1999, Sam explored treatment options to prevent further damage. Physicians in his hometown of Philadelphia performed an angiogram and, upon seeing his blocked arteries, suggested that he seek open heart surgery, but Sam wasn’t fully convinced that such a drastic method was needed. He was interested in a stent procedure he’d heard about, one that could treat his shortness of breath, pain and other symptoms, reduce the risk of future heart attacks, and eliminate the need for complicated surgery. And he dreamed of playing golf—one of his passions—again. But his physicians felt that such a procedure was too risky for someone with his health issues.

So Sam Fineman began investigating other options.

Bypassing the bypass

After discussing the problem with a friend, his research led him to Samin K. Sharma, MD, Director of Mount Sinai Heart’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory & Intervention and the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Professor of Medicine, who is known for taking on such difficult cases. Dr. Sharma and his team specialize in these complex coronary interventions, defined as those in which the risks are high, either because of the patient’s age and general health, or because access to the blockage is difficult. In fact,

they often take on cases that other facilities deem “inoperable for advanced care”—and they still manage to achieve New York State’s highest success rate.

When Sam met with Dr. Sharma, he shared his concerns: treating his pain and minimizing risk, and a chance to regain and maintain a high quality of life. While Dr. Sharma believed that nonsurgical interventions could hold the answer to his problems,

he warned that he would have to perform several of them, spaced out over a couple of years. Assuring Dr. Sharma that it still was preferable to bypass surgery for him, Sam knew he was ready.

“I will always be here for you”

The first procedure—in 1999 went well, but Sam, overwhelmed and unnerved by the experience, had some difficulty coming to terms with what was happening. Walking down the hall with his IV pole, he saw Dr. Sharma in the distance and wanted to acknowledge what he had done.

“I went up to Dr. Sharma and told him, ‘Thank you for saving my life.’” Dr. Sharma put down the chart he was reviewing, looked Sam in the eye and responded—without hesitation—“I will always be here for you.”

It was a broad commitment for any physician, especially for one who directs the most prolific (and the safest) cardiac catheterization lab in the state, according to New York State Department of Health statistics—but it was a commitment not given lightly.

And when Sam again began experiencing sharp and sudden chest pains in July 2008, he took Dr. Sharma at his word and dialed the cardiologist. In Chicago when the call came, Dr. Sharma flew back to New York to ensure that he could personally perform the intervention on Sam’s critical blockage. Sam truly believes that, “Without him, I probably wouldn’t be here.” In the last eleven years and nine angioplasties later, Sam’s dream of bypassing the bypass has really been fulfilled.

Transformation

Since arriving at Mount Sinai in 1988, Dr. Sharma has transformed himself—from an angioplasty specialist who was so eager to work with Director of Mount Sinai Heart Dr. Valentin Fuster [see pages 12–15 for more about this internationally renowned cardiologist] that he accepted an unpaid fellowship—to the safest interventionalist in New York for the past decade. His lab participates regularly in single- and multi-center trials, and the team’s expertise is so highly regarded that their lab performed the highest volume of cardiac interventions in the country in 2009; one-third of those cases were actually referred by physicians outside the Mount Sinai network.

Yet no matter how many accolades have been showered upon him, Dr. Sharma remains firmly

D


connected to his patients. He believes that vigilance after a procedure is crucial to its outcome, to the point of providing his cell phone number to patients so that they can reach him at any time following their initial procedure. Sam’s case, clearly, was no exception.

“It’s beyond just treating the case,” Dr. Sharma says, “because I need to be there to take care of things right away if any complications develop afterward. I need my patients to know I’m accessible and to feel confident in that.” Sam puts it another way: what makes Dr. Sharma truly remarkable, he says, “is that he cares about his patients as more than just patients.”

Extended family—extended care

Sam isn’t the only member of the family who can speak directly to Dr. Sharma’s extraordinary level of care. Five years ago, Sam’s mother, Geraldine—then 85 and living in Florida—began experiencing symptoms like night sweats and back pain. Sam, who knew all about the symptoms because of his own experience, realized that she was suffering from cardiac insufficiency and suggested that she go for tests to determine the severity of the blockages. Her tests revealed that she needed treatment, but due to her age and the length of time a procedure would take, local medical institutions were not willing to perform an intervention on her.

Sam flew his mother up from Florida to see Dr. Sharma at Mount Sinai, and he agreed to take

the case. So that she could stand the intervention, he performed a procedure in just two hours instead of the eight-hour surgery that other hospitals suggested; he treated her angina symptoms while also providing her with a much better standard of life.

Sam says that while other physicians, even at top medical institutions, told Geraldine that her medical condition was just a function of aging, Dr. Sharma actually took the time to see what could be done to best treat her. “She was unable to walk one hundred feet before the intervention,” says Sam, “but after the procedure

she refused a wheelchair and insisted on walking all the way out to the parking lot.” Last year, Dr. Sharma performed another treatment on her, using a balloon to treat her blocked valves. Dr. Sharma is one of the few invasive cardiologists able to angioplasty heart valves.

This year, Geraldine turned 90, and Sam’s golf game is going strong.

Vigilance

How does Dr. Sharma achieve such success with high-risk patients? It’s partly a matter of vigilance, he says. “Over the years, I just developed a strategy for complex cases. And it’s beyond doing the case—the care after the procedure needs to be very vigilant, because sometimes complications develop. Mr. Fineman’s mother, for example, had bleeding after her procedure but we were able to take care of it right away.”

But it takes more than knowing how to treat patients: fundamentally, he has a deep desire to go where others may fear to tread—and to do it over and over. Dr. Sharma is proud of the sheer volume of patients treated in the cath lab, believing that they’re advancing the field by taking on more procedures. His ethic is to practice and to perfect, and to be sure his own heart is deeply involved in patient care.

“For me,” Dr. Sharma says, “success is about having expertise in the procedure. I have to have the confidence to elevate the field of interventional cardiology.”

Dr. Samin Sharma and his patient,

Sam Fineman


Deborah Ascheim, Michael Parides, Eric Rose, Annetine gelijns

Edlira Kumbarce, Ron Levitan

Team Work Dr. Eric Rose is managing a team of two-dozen pros. How are they making you healthier? Read on.By Catherine Reilly

Consider them the Neighborhood Watch in your health care community.

“For everything we think we know in medicine, there’s ten times as much that we don’t,” says Eric Rose, MD, Edmond A. Guggenheim Professor and Chairman of the Department of Health Evidence and Policy, and Associate Director for Clinical Outcomes at Mount Sinai Heart. Dr. Rose, who performed the first successful pediatric heart transplant in 1984, has made a career out of examining the new frontiers of medicine and attempting to harness the unknown. “I consider myself an interventional biologist—that’s my driving force. I know some basic scientists are looking

Meet one of Mount Sinai’s newest teams: The Department of Health Evidence and Policy. Their hard work is making you healthier—and their impact will be felt throughout the complex universe that is health care in America.

Their work includes shaping clinical trials, measuring data to determine evidence, informing good health policy, and putting in place new protocols that make your hospital visits safer and more effective. And in light of the recent passage of the 2010 Health Care Reform Bill, theirs is an essential voice in making health care affordable, accessible, and innovative.


Rami Habas, Terry Ye, Vincent Dobrev

Janine Lynch, Alejandra guerchicoff

for truth, but I’m looking for ‘better’ rather than ‘truth.’” His team, co-directed by Annetine Gelijns, MD, Professor of Health Evidence and Policy, strives for just that.

As Dr. Rose sees it, three components ensure that patients receive quality care. The first: innovation to improve upon existing treatments or create new ones. As the coordinating center for the Cardiothoracic Surgery Clinical Trials Network—a national network funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—the department supports several clinical trials currently underway. One trial, in conjunction with several other academic medical centers, studies ways in which to minimize infection as a result of cardiac surgery, and a newly launched trial in regenerative medicine uses stem cells to repair a heart so that transplantation may not be necessary. It’s this focus on dual innovation—both in improving current treatments and coming up with alternative therapies—that drives the best patient care.

But innovation can be effective only if its outcomes can be quantified in a meaningful way. So the second crucial component of quality care is measuring patient outcomes—that is, survival and quality of life. Dr. Rose’s team detects, measures, and analyzes adverse events to determine if there’s a way to minimize or even eliminate them. “Imagine if Coca Cola said that one out of every hundred cans would kill you—it’s unacceptable there and, to me, it should be unacceptable in health care, too,” Dr. Rose says.

“Even open heart surgery, which has a high success rate, has errors that need to be studied.” Dr. Rose and his team are rolling out quality management initiatives within Mount Sinai, measuring adverse events and making recommendations to New York State.


Natalia Egorova, giampaolo greco

up to the challenge: health care reform Eric Rose followed the crafting of the 2010

Health Care Reform Bill closely, especially the

component of the bill that creates Healthcare

Innovation Zones (HIZs). The government will

provide U.S. academic medical centers—like

Mount Sinai—with a total of about $1 billion

in funding annually for HIZs, which will be

designed to demonstrate coordination of care

and will support more effective planning and

delivery of care. In coordination with academic

medical centers, HIZs, it is hoped, will provide

the full spectrum of healthcare services and

measure the outcomes, particularly in urban

settings with diverse populations. “Our team

been charged by Mount Sinai’s leadership

to develop the institution’s application to

the HIZ initiative,” Dr. Rose says. “We believe

we can be leaders in the effort.” His work to

pioneer experimental treatments, measure the

effectiveness of those treatments, and provide

them all seamlessly to patients is the ideal

model for the program.

Melissa Chase, Bill Slavik, Anny Fernandez, Seth goldfarb


Ellen Moquete, Carrie Wood

“It’s interesting that the origin of the term ‘hospital’ implied some degree of caring and customer service, yet hospitals are some of the most inhospitable places you can imagine,” Dr. Rose says. “How many health care interactions can you think of that have actually delighted you? We may never get to that point, but we can certainly aim to meet—and exceed—expectations.”

The third and last vital component of quality management is customer service. For Dr. Rose, health care is no longer about a patient and one physician, but a whole team of physicians, nurse practitioners, data coordinators and even social workers coming together collaboratively to determine the best possible care for patients. Each area of medicine—for example, a transplant center—forms its own “medical home” for patient care, and these homes make up the neighborhood that builds the best medical centers. Patients’ needs can be met in a timely manner and, with the use of emerging technology like electronic medical records, accuracy and integrated care can be assured.

Jason Wang, Julie giacovelli, Jennifer Ferrante, Alejandrina Estevez

26 Mount Sinai Science & MedicineMount Sinai Science & Medicine26


MytH: Breakthrough concepts spring forth fully formed, the

way a well-armed athena burst through the forehead of Zeus.

REality: Breakthrough concepts begin as fleeting thoughts,

slowly gaining significance and evolving—over months, years,

or even decades of work—into ideas that will change lives.

Moreover, this evolution is usually the product of many minds, not just one or two. “A clinical trial always has years of basic and translational research behind it,” notes Dr. Roger Hajjar, the Arthur and Janet C. Ross Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “To reach the trial stage, the fundamental idea must be worked on by multiple people in multiple fields of medicine.”

CUPID and calcium

Dr. Hajjar’s laboratory recently completed the CUPID Trial (Calcium Up-Regulation by Percutaneous Administration of Gene Therapy in Cardiac Disease), a first-in-man clinical trial of gene therapy for heart failure. It represented more than a decade of investigation into the role of calcium in heart disease.

In May 2010, Dr. Hajjar’s team delivered extraordinary news: This new gene therapy is safe and effective in reversing advanced heart failure.

Two cardiovascular researchers are finding breakthroughs in gene therapy that can improve the function of damaged heart tissue or regenerate heart muscle—and maybe other organs as well.

Breakthrough: RegenerationBy Kristin Lund

Drs. Roger Hajjar and Hina Chaudhry

(this page, top), in the CUPID lab.


cell stage, and scientists began to look at whether bone marrow stem cell implantation could be effective in helping hearts that are failing. I didn’t pursue this line because I simply didn’t think it would work as a therapy.” (Rigorous testing by other scientists have since confirmed Dr. Chaudhry’s hunch.)

Convinced that heart failure patients would benefit from a different approach, Dr. Chaudhry started fresh. “Having studied developmental biology,” she says, “I look for simple solutions that make sense. Why is the heart so vulnerable? Because the heart—unlike other major organs—is unable to regenerate on its own.”

Research performed by Dr. Chaudhry and by other investigators had identified a gene—cyclin A2—that was active in embryos but silenced after birth. Dr. Chaudhry decided to find out what would happen if she could prevent that gene from deactivating.

“The driver of all genes is the promoter, and if the promoter goes silent, the gene is silenced,” she says. “We created a transgene by linking the coding region of cyclin A2 to the promoter of another gene, one that stays active through adulthood. Our research showed that when cyclin A2 was expressed via transgenic approaches, it triggered the formation of new cardiomyocytes [cardiac muscle cells] in the infarcted areas of a damaged heart. In other words, a heart that has the transgene is able to regenerate.

“This was tremendously exciting for me,” Dr. Chaudhry acknowledges. “But, we still had to figure out how this discovery could translate into a therapy.”

Virus delivery

Before coming to Mount Sinai, Dr. Chaudhry had published a paper showing that viral delivery of cyclin A2 would work: She had been able to place it into a deactivated virus which could infect the heart but wouldn’t harm it. When she was personally recruited to the Center by Dr. Hajjar, they collaborated to take this research to the next level and develop a human delivery system for cyclin A2.

As with any groundbreaking medical discovery, Dr. Chaudhry’s gene therapy must go through a full range of grueling tests before it is deemed safe to try on a broader population of patients. “Fortunately,” says Dr. Hajjar, “Mount Sinai has set up a strong translational infrastructure that helps with this issue. We can perform basic research at the molecular level here, and we can then take the research all the way up to the clinical trial stage.”

SERCA2a (produced as MYDICAR®), which was created in Dr. Hajjar’s Mount Sinai Heart laboratory, is a gene therapy designed to stimulate production of an enzyme that enables the failing heart to pump more effectively. In a Phase II study, SERCA2a injection through a routine minimally invasive cardiac catheterization was safe and showed clinical benefit in treating this patient population and decreasing the severity of heart failure.

“The cardiac muscle needs calcium to beat regularly,” Dr. Hajjar explains. “Normally, the calcium enters the heart and is released, making the heart contract, and is then removed. In heart failure, the cycling becomes grossly abnormal. In 1999, we discovered that calcium-cycling abnormalities are related to decreased activity in the SERCA2a gene, an important intracellular transporter in the heart. We began working on the problem from different angles, trying to develop the tools and delivery methods to restore SERCA2a to normal functioning levels.”

The discovery of SERCA2a’s role paved the way—years later—for the CUPID Trial. “We developed a process of delivering the gene treatment directly to a patient’s heart through a catheter,” says Dr. Hajjar. “All they need is an outpatient procedure, and their outlook and quality of life are both improved.”

A breakthrough like this encompasses contributions from many medical disciplines. Dr. Hajjar’s team represents expertise in molecular

biology, cardiovascular physiology, biomedical and tissue engineering, electrophysiology, and gene and regenerative therapy, an area overseen by Dr. Hina Chaudhry, Director of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Regeneration—and another breakthrough

Dr. Chaudhry has been participating in the evolution of another idea that she hopes will help heart failure patients. “Years ago, researched showed that your bone marrow’s fate is decided by the embryo at the sixteen-

“I love the collaborative atmosphere

here at Mount Sinai. One person’s idea

sparks a thousand other ideas.”


Dr. Chaudhry’s therapy is passing with flying colors so far, and she is now exploring potential alternative delivery systems for her transgene. At the same time, she hopes to discover the reason why our native gene promoter goes silent and whether it can be turned back on. If she can develop a small molecule solution that can reactivate the native gene, she could administer it to heart failure patients as a pill, rather than injecting them with the altered gene.

“I’ve always been interested in challenges,” she says, “and I don’t believe in giving up.” When she was just 7 years old, her father underwent a quadruple bypass procedure. “Lots of heart patients died in those days, and we knew he faced this risk. Although he survived, I decided then and there that cardiology was probably the most challenging thing I could do with my life, and I never looked back.”

Brilliant discoveries? Just the beginning

Dr. Hajjar’s work reflects a similarly sharp focus. “Even as an undergraduate,” he says, “I was completely fascinated by the mechanical mechanisms of the heart. I immersed myself in cardiac biology and the study of muscle function. When I started a lab after my cardiovascular fellowship, I was interested in whether novel technologies like gene therapy could be used to target electric abnormalities in the heart. This field has continued to hold my interest for years and years.”

For both of these doctors, a brilliant discovery and subsequent translation into treatment is no reason to rest. Just the opposite: Each new discovery opens new possibilities, and the ideas evolve and evolve.

“We continue to refine gene therapy delivery systems,” says Dr. Hajjar, “with the goal of developing new safe vectors that can take genes to a range of specific organs, not just the heart. This would have the advantage of a very targeted, personalized approach. We are working to achieve a modified vector that will reach only the lung or the heart or the liver. By adding novel molecular imaging techniques to our research efforts, we’ve been able to tag vectors and track them, to see if the gene ends up in the right place.”

Dr. Hajjar’s lab is also exploring another approach to personalized treatment for heart failure patients. His investigators are working with cardiac cells that they create from a specific patient’s skin biopsy. Although the research is in a very early stage, his team

has been able to build a three-dimensional organ from these cells—an organ that looks like a heart, can be tested like a heart, and might provide invaluable insights into that particular patient’s disease.

“If you can recreate someone’s heart,” Dr. Hajjar says, “you’ll learn why this patient has heart failure in the first place. In the future, we hope we’ll be able

to test novel therapies this way, before treating the patient. It will be a very individualized approach—but we have years of testing ahead.”

Collaboration: Maximum impact

In Dr. Chaudhry’s lab, testing continues on many fronts, including a project on peripartum cardiomyopathy—the deterioration of cardiac function that can occur between the last month of pregnancy and up to five months postpartum.

Her investigators have found that in a pregnant subject whose heart is injured, fetal stem cells (along with placenta cells) transfer from the embryo to the mother’s heart and become heart cells. “This might help explain why pregnant women with heart failure have the highest rate of spontaneous recovery from the disease,” she says. “We’ve started to explore the possibility that placenta cells could be used for heart repair in other forms of cardiomyopathy.”

Perhaps the greatest benefit of an institution like Mount Sinai is the opportunity for collaboration, for one researcher’s idea to gain the attention of someone in a different field—and gain tremendous momentum, evolving more swiftly as a result.

“My focus is the heart,” says Dr. Chaudhry, “but I’m interested in any system that doesn’t regenerate. The gene therapy we’ve developed might be the key to bone regeneration or might help repair eroding skeletal muscle. What if it could lead to the regeneration of brain cells? I love the collaborative atmosphere here at Mount Sinai. One person’s idea sparks a thousand other ideas, and there’s always a chance that something miraculous will happen.”

“If you can recreate someone’s heart,

you’ll learn why this patient has

heart failure in the first place.”


Critical Care: Making History

On August 24th, 2009, two Mount Sinai doctors performed a history-making cardiac procedure that allowed them to treat a malfunctioning left atrial appendage, which is the major cause of stroke in individuals with atrial fibrillation (AFib), without needing to perform surgery.

A month later, they operated on a second patient using a new catheter device that allowed them to treat AFib using a visually-guided laser catheter.

Vivek Y. Reddy, MD, Director of The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Center for Cardiac Electrophysiology at Mount Sinai Heart—one of the two heart surgeons who performed the procedures—gives us some answers to these and other questions.

So, we wondered, what makes these procedures historic? Why are they critical to future cardiac care? And what are the threats posed by atrial fibrillation and conventional methods of treating it?


of AFib is vital, and that’s where my work and that of my colleague, Srinivas R. Dukkipati, MD, Director of Mount Sinai’s Experimental Electrophysiology Laboratories, comes into play.

Q. What are some of the techniques that you and Dr. Dukkipati have pioneered to treat AFib?

Dr. Reddy. We’ve performed several new procedures to treat AFib. One of them uses sutures to tie off a left atrial appendage (LAA), which can be the source of blood clots leading to stroke in patients with AFib. With the patient under general anesthesia, we guide two catheters into the patient’s heart to seal the LAA with a pre-tied suture loop. Instead of surgery, which can involve spreading the rib cage or cutting through bone to access the LAA, this procedure does not require surgical incisions and is instead performed percutaneously—that is, using needle punctures to introduce catheters to the heart.

The second procedure that we performed involves using a visually-guided laser balloon catheter to ablate, or eliminate, the AFib. With this new device that features a built-in camera, we are able to view the heart tissue that needs to be ablated. We can then use a laser to create uniform scar tissue around the site and make sure it heals properly.

Q. What are the ramifications of these new treatments?

Dr. Reddy. Compared with a lifetime of medication therapy (which is often ineffective), or the risks of other surgical modalities, a one-time noninvasive procedure to relieve the complications of AFib offers a whole new paradigm. By pursuing these types of treatments, we will be able to usher in a new standard of care for people with this serious cardiac condition.

Q. What is atrial fibrillation?

Dr. Reddy. Atrial fibrillation—AFib for short—is a heart rhythm condition where the heartbeat is rapid and irregular. In order to understand it, one must first understand how the heart usually functions. The heart’s electrical system normally sends regularly spaced, predictable signals, telling the heart muscle to contract, or beat. The heart has two upper chambers, called atria, and two lower chambers, called ventricles. Each signal starts in the atria and travels to the rest of the heart. In atrial fibrillation, the electrical signals from the atria are fast and irregular. The atria quiver, rather than contract. The signals reach the ventricles and the ventricles continue pumping, but usually irregularly and sometimes rapidly. This erratic uncoordinated rhythm can reduce the heart’s efficiency at pumping blood out to the body and cause serious complications, including palpitations, fainting, stroke, and even heart failure.

Q. Whom does it affect most?

Dr. Reddy. AFib can affect anyone, including healthy and active people, and its incidence has increased over the past two decades. Currently more than 6 million American adults have been diagnosed with it. And it is particularly common in the elderly, where it currently accounts for a quarter of all strokes.

Q. How is AFib normally treated?

Dr. Reddy. AFib is typically treated with drug therapies—such as the blood thinner warfarin (Coumadin)—or through open-heart surgery. But warfarin can have serious side effects and its level in the blood must be managed rigorously. Many patients may not be capable of taking it long-term, either. Open-heart surgeries are also an option, but are very invasive and high risk. So the need for a change in the treatment


imagineBy Celia M. Regan



Zahi A. Fayad, PhD, spends his workday practicing magic.

Like any good magician, he slices bodies in half: But Dr. Fayad, who is Professor of Radiology and Medicine (Cardiology), does it for real, and without a scratch to his patients, affording clinicians and researchers fantastically detailed, high contrast views inside the human body that are revolutionizing the field.

Dr. Fayad’s laboratory is focused on developing and using noninvasive imaging methods that allow the early detection, prevention, and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Mount Sinai pioneered the use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to detect hidden plaque buildup within the arterial wall in a noninvasive way. Building on that work, collaborative research is now combining cardiovascular MRI with other technologies—and especially Positron Emission Tomography (PET scanning)—to investigate both the lumen and the vessel wall noninvasively.

But this magician pulls rabbits out of more than one hat. “Imaging is not just about cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Fayad says. “We are also deeply passionate about our other research missions: neuroscience and oncology imaging. The Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute is inventing and applying technologies that will enable breakthroughs in our other institutes.”

Director of the Imaging Institute—as well as Director and Founder of the Eva and Morris Feld Imaging Science Laboratories and Director of Cardiovascular Imaging Research at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Mount Sinai Medical Center—Dr. Fayad is one of the world’s leaders in the development and use of multimodality cardiovascular imaging. He also has been developing novel methods for targeted drug delivery to improve the treatment of cardiovascular disease, and holds multiple patents in the field of imaging.

Cardiovascular disease is, as Dr. Fayad puts it, “the last and the hardest frontier” for MRI technology. “Beginning in the 1990s, people wanted to combine PET with a high spatial-resolution scanner. CT [Computer Tomography] scanning was tried first, since electronics that could work in the room with magnet technology just didn’t exist then. We were one of the first CT centers for coronary imaging, but we knew we needed better resolution, and greater contrast. Philips Healthcare and the Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute collaborated to combine the whole-body PET/MR dual system. The PET’s electronic components are shielded from the MRI magnetic field, and the MRI and PET scanners are placed three meters apart.”

Presto: Mount Sinai boasts the first, and only, installation of a full-body dual-technology system with MRI and PET. “Not using CT reduces radiation, and the application of PET lets us look into the

aspect of disease metabolism: We can see the activity of a single cell. So we are combining the molecular activity of PET with the good images of MRI.”

Now the former electrical engineer is preparing for a new magic trick. “There are prototypes that unite PET and MRI technologies into a single machine—that’s our goal. At Mount Sinai, we are evaluating how they work together in a clinical setting, and in two years, the Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute plans to install an integrated scanner in the Center for Science and Medicine.”

Going where no man—or single machine—

has gone before, the innovative director of

Mount Sinai’s Translational and Molecular

Imaging Institute conjures up amazing images.

Dr. Fayad is one of the world’s leaders

in multimodality cardiovascular imaging.

Opposite:

the power of

combining modern

MRI techniques

on a healthy

control subject.

A high-resolution

anatomical scan

of the body, this

image maps out

axonal fiber tracts

in the brain (color)

using diffusion

tensor imaging

(DTI) and shows

images of all the

blood vessels in

the body, including

the heart while it is

pumping the blood.


1

2

“Mount Sinai is specifically interested in PET/MR because the combination

is expected to provide a more advanced understanding of the processes

taking place in the vascular beds. Multimodality imaging enhances

the power of the separated modalities by automatically combining

functional and anatomical information. The use of PET/MR scanners

instead of PET/CT scanners not only reduces the extra radiation dose

to the patient but also offers higher soft tissue contrast, allowing better

visualization and understanding of the underlying disease. In particular,

combined whole-body PET/MR scanners are a very valuable tool for

cardiovascular disease imaging, enhancing earlier and more accurate

diagnoses of damaged vascular beds—all this with low radiation. ”

DR. ZAHI A. FAYAD


1 Computed Tomography coronary arteries angiogram 2 Magnetic Resonance angiography: whole body 3 Multi-Detector

Row Computed Tomography (MDCT): whole body 4 Dr. Fayad with Mount Sinai’s combined MRI and PET scanning

5 Magnetic Resonance pulmonary angiogram

3 4

5

SPRINg/SUMMER 2010


Armed with a major new grant and led by Dr. Bruce Gelb, Mount Sinai researchers

are tackling the causes of heart disease in children.

Repairing the Littlest HeartsBy Philip Berroll


It’s tiny, perhaps the size of a grape—yet its intricacy rivals that of a Fabergé egg. It’s vulnerable to disease—yet it must pulse life powerfully throughout a new body. It begins working hard from the moment it’s formed—yet at birth, the walls within it haven’t even finished closing.

It’s the infant heart, small enough to cup in a little hand. And if the heart isn’t perfect, it can mean a lifetime of pain and worry—or a life cut short when it’s barely begun.

Each year, thousands of children are born with cardiac malformations. Many of these infants have one of the five forms of heart defects that will be studied in the most ambitious and wide-reaching project about the genetics of these birth defects ever attempted. Collectively, these heart lesions result in many of the early deaths associated with congenital heart disease and lead to a wide range of lifelong health problems among those who survive the surgical interventions needed to address them.

But now a team of Mount Sinai researchers, working with the leading American experts in this field, is poised to zero in on the root causes of congenital heart defects—which they believe can be found in a child’s genetic makeup.

One of five

Mount Sinai School of Medicine is one of just five prestigious research centers that will be collaborating to investigate the genetic causes of heart disease in children, funded by a $4.7 million, six-year grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The five institutions, known collectively as the Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium (PCGC), were awarded the grant as part of NHLBI’s new $100 million pediatric research program, “From Bench to Bassinet.” The program’s overall goal: to study the formation of the cardiovascular system—and apply that knowledge to create new diagnostic and treatment strategies for congenital heart disease.

“We’re all working together, which is so exciting since the group includes the best physician-scientists in this field,” says Dr. Bruce Gelb, the recently appointed Director of Mount Sinai’s Child Health and Development Institute (CHDI), who will be a lead investigator for the study of secundum atrial septal defects (ASD) as well as at least one other form of heart disease. ASD is a condition in which the wall separating the atria—the upper chambers of the heart—fails to close completely. If left untreated, ASD can potentially lead to an increased risk of pulmonary hypertension, arrhythmias, heart failure, and stroke.

“This new program will give us the chance to make substantive progress in finding out what causes kids to have ASD and other, even more life-threatening heart problems,” Dr. Gelb says, “and then, hopefully, leverage those findings to come up with new and better ways to approach treatment for the children who suffer from these conditions.”

Ready to solve the mystery

Previous research, including groundbreaking work by the Gelb team at Mount Sinai, has already identified two types of genetic changes in affected children that can cause heart defects—alterations in the DNA code affecting only one of the three billion parts of the human DNA code, and larger lesions affecting one million or more DNA bases (so-called copy number variants).

“We want to continue to identify the genetic causes of congenital heart disease,” says Dr. Gelb, “which can lead to better treatment. In addition, it is likely that there are genetic connections between problems of the heart and malformations of other organs such as the brain and kidney, which would allow us to identify syndromes we’ve never recognized before.”

All of this is possible, he says, thanks to major advances in genomic technology: “Our ability to sequence portions of the genome has greatly improved in just the last few years, with the promise that this will happen even more in the next couple of years as more technology comes online. As a result,


Mount Sinai School of Medicine is

one of just five prestigious research centers

that will be collaborating to investigate

the genetic causes of heart disease in children.

we have an unprecedented opportunity to solve the mystery of congenital heart disease.”

Dr. Gelb’s enthusiasm is echoed by Dr. Robert Desnick, Chair of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and Dean for Genetics and Genomics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, who says that a major research breakthrough—the discovery of variations in some

infants’ genetic makeup—has made it easier to isolate and identify mutated genes, such as those which may be linked to congenital heart disease.

“We used to think that every individual inherited a copy of each parent’s genome,” Dr. Desnick explains, “and that if you worked your way through, gene by gene, they would all be there. But we now know that certain disorders result from de novo [in the fetus] changes—in other words, the parents are fine, but in that baby, there’s been a defect, and as a result, a section

of the genome that may include many genes is either deleted or duplicated. We call this Copy Number Variation or CNV—and it is a major advance.”

Strength in Numbers

Mount Sinai’s partners in the Consortium are Children’s Hospital Boston of Harvard Medical School, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Yale University School of Medicine. The five research centers will interact with each other, with another new investigative group organized by NHLBI called the Cardiac Development Consortium, and with the existing NHLBI Pediatric Heart Network, which sponsors clinical trials. Through this arrangement, new discoveries by researchers can be rapidly translated into life-saving treatments for afflicted children.

And there are other advantages to having multiple centers involved in the study. It will greatly increase the number of available research participants—according to Dr. Gelb, several of the centers have “some of the largest numbers of children with heart defects in the country, if not the world” as subjects—and it will pool the resources and talents of what he calls “absolutely the leaders in this field.”

“We hope,” says Dr. Gelb, “this will be a case of ‘one plus one equals four’—by coming together and working together, we’ll be able to accomplish much more together than we would separately.”

Dr. Gelb believes that PCGC’s findings will be the foundation for major advances in the treatment of heart disease in children.

“If what we already know is any hint,” he says, “I think that we will be able to improve our ability to predict what’s going to happen to a given child with congenital heart disease and what the risks are of things happening again in a family. From there, we can start to make a difference in the way clinical care is delivered to certain patients—and over time, to all of them.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Mount Sinai supporter Seth Glickenhaus (left) discusses his gift with Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President & CEO, The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

GivinG

Glickenhaus: $4 million for NeuroscienceSarah and Seth Glickenhaus, who have supported a variety

of Mount Sinai’s initiatives within the neurosciences over

the past several years, recently committed $4 million to the

Friedman Brain Institute. The gift will establish the Glickenhaus

Neuroscience Laboratories, which will be dedicated to the

work of researchers and clinicians who focus on cognition

and neurodegenerative diseases, and enables Mount Sinai to

renovate laboratory space on the 22nd floor of the Annenberg

building. These renovations will create a state-of-the-art

facility that will allow researchers to pursue work in cognition,

autism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, and the genetics

of Parkinson’s disease.

“The Glickenhaus family understands what we truly need to

remain at the forefront of neurological discovery. Their support

enables us to continue to make strides in Alzheimer’s disease,

cognition, and a host of other areas,” says Eric Nestler, MD, PhD,

Nash Family Professor, Chair of Neuroscience and Director of

the Friedman Brain Institute.

Other key initiatives that the Glickenhaus family has funded

at Mount Sinai include a named professorship and chairmanship

for the Department of Neurology, held by Stuart C. Sealfon, MD,

Sarah B. and Seth M. Glickenhaus Professor and Chair of the

Department of Neurology; Director of the Center for Genomics,

Proteomics and Bioinformatics; Director of the Center for

Translational Systems Biology; and Professor of Neurobiology

and Pharmacology & Systems Therapeutics.

Sarah and Seth’s involvement with philanthropy reaches

far beyond themselves. Their children Jim and Nancy have also

been actively engaged in supporting Mount Sinai, and their

granddaughter Katie is currently studying at Mount Sinai

School of Medicine.

“My family believes strongly that neurology is one of

the last great frontiers in medicine,” Seth says. “Under the

leadership of Drs. Davis, Charney, and Nestler, Mount Sinai

will develop the best and most effective brain institute in

the world.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+

LEFT TO RIGHT

Dennis S. Charney, MD,

Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz

Dean, Mount Sinai

School of Medicine and

Executive Vice President

for Academic Affairs, The

Mount Sinai Medical

Center; Sarah Glickenhaus,

Seth Glickenhaus, and

Sarah B. and Seth M.

Glickenhaus Professor

Stuart C. Sealfon, MD.

+

40 Mount Sinai Science & MedicineMount Sinai Science & Medicine

GivinG

ABOVE Guests gathered on October 26, 2009 to celebrate the groundbreaking for The

Alexandra & Steven Cohen Center for Labor & Birth. The event allowed Mount Sinai

to thank Alex and her husband, Steven, for their gift of $5 million to renovate the

public space on the labor and delivery floor as well as to create a new ante-partum

unit. Kenneth Davis, MD, President and CEO of The Mount Sinai Medical Center, and

Michael Brodman, MD, Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and

Reproductive Science, were on hand for the groundbreaking.

BELOW The Young Friends of Mount Sinai held

their Fall Fete on November 11, 2009 at the

Maritime Hotel. More than 400 young supporters

attended the gathering, whose proceeds went

toward The Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program.

The program is the largest academic home-based

primary care program in the nation.

Cohen Ground- breakinG

YounG Friends

Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President &

CEO, The Mount Sinai Medical Center,

Michael Brodman, MD, Chairman of the

Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and

Reproductive Science, and Mount Sinai

supporter Alexandra Cohen celebrate the

groundbreaking of The Alexandra & Steven

Cohen Center for Labor & Birth.

Lauren Hochfelder Silverman and Kipton Cronkite.

TOP ROW, L-R: David Richman, Jonathan Salky, Susan Kasser, Andrew Steinau, Ross Koller. BOTTOM ROW, L-R: Evan LaPatner, Wesley LePatner, Teddy Schwarzman, Ellen Schwarzman, Allison Charney.

Teddy Schwarzman and Linda V. DeCherrie, MD.

Mr. and Mrs. Steve Yadegari, Arin Prisand, Rich Swersky.


sprinG 2010Florida events

THIS PAGE Guests gathered at the Palm Beach homes of several supporters of Mount Sinai in February and March.

Leonard and Susan Feinstein, Jim Harpel, and Steven and Ann Ames hosted events in support of Mount Sinai

Heart, the Dubin Breast Center, and the Tisch Cancer Institute. Guests heard from such luminaries as Mount Sinai

Heart Director Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Dubin Breast Center Co-Director George Raptis, MD, MPA, Tisch Cancer

Institute Director Steven Burakoff, MD, and Mount Sinai Medical Center President and CEO Kenneth L. Davis, MD.

Jerome and Joan Scheckman.

Jim Harpel, Nancy Brinker and Eva Dubin.

Glenn Dubin and Marie-Josée Kravis.

Mount Sinai Heart Director Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Susan and Leonard Feinstein.

Warren Fink, MD, Karen Fink, Tarsi Georgas and Bill Georgas.


GiVE BACK

GivinG

MOuNT SiNAi’S PHYSiCiANS

i value the work we’re doing.Samin Sharma, MD

SPRINg/SUMMER 2010 43SPRINg/SUMMER 2010 43

Many physicians at Mount Sinai go beyond their call to medicine and contribute much-needed financial support for the institution. Last fall, Samin K. Sharma, MD, Director of Mount Sinai Heart’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory & Intervention and the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Professor of Medicine, pledged $5 million toward supporting his lab’s endowment. Dr. Sharma will personally commit $2 million toward the project, and has promised to raise an additional $3 million from grateful patients and friends. Dr. Sharma made the gift in honor of his father, Anandi Lal Sharma, who, he says, instilled values like discipline in him during his formative years. According to Dr. Sharma, “I value the work we’re doing.”

Dr. Sharma’s story is just one example of the generosity of Mount Sinai physicians. Arthur Aufses, MD, has been donating to Mount Sinai since his arrival here in 1954. Dr. Aufses, who served as Chairman of the Department of Surgery from 1974 to 1996, feels strongly about giving back to the institution that has given him so much. He says, “Only at Mount Sinai could I have had this kind of success. My wife and I both feel that this is a unique place, and it’s really been a second home for me.” Early on, Dr. and Mrs. Aufses established a scholarship in honor of his parents (his father was also a Mount Sinai physician) and have established prizes and lectureships in honor of both their parents.

Elisa Gretz-Friedman, MD, also has family ties to the institution. Her father-in-law was a professor of surgery at Mount Sinai for more than 50 years; she is an alumna of Mount Sinai School of Medicine as well as an assistant professor, and practices as Medical Director of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the Faculty Practice Associates. Her daughter, who will soon attend the School of Medicine, is carrying the tradition into the third generation. According to Dr. Gretz-Friedman, “To excel and to lead, we must all contribute our time and financial resources to Mount Sinai.” Toward that end, Dr. Gretz-Friedman created an endowed fund to support scholarships for underrepresented minority students. As she says, “I believe in Mount Sinai.”

Drs. Sharma, Aufses, and Gretz-Friedman are far from alone. In recent years, more than 750 Mount Sinai physicians have supported the medical center. What compels such commitment? Perhaps Dr. Sharma sums it up best: “We must concentrate on what we can accomplish today. But we also need to invest now in what we can accomplish in the future.”

This is a unique place, and it’s really been a second home for me.Arthur Aufses, MD

i believe in Mount Sinai.Elisa Gretz-Friedman, MD


The Societies of Mount Sinai: Partners in ExcellenceMount Sinai is honored to announce the creation of one new giving society, and the

reinvigoration of two dormant ones. These are The Societies of Mount Sinai: Partners

in excellence, demonstrating the variety of philanthropic distinction that exists at

Mount Sinai. The Societies work to support the three parts of Mount Sinai’s mission:

patient care, research, and education.

GivinG

All societies will reward members with invitations and other exclusive opportunities

keyed to the level of their support. These gifts are critical to the future of the institution

and will help ensure our continued medical excellence.

For more information about The Societies of Mount Sinai: Partners in Excellence,

please contact Al Seminsky, Director of Annual Leadership giving, at (212) 659-9554

or [email protected], or visit philanthropy.mountsinai.org.

The Noble Deeds Society honors those who

have contributed to Mount Sinai at significant

philanthropic levels, of $1 million or more, over

the years.

The President’s Leadership Circle recognizes

the generosity of donors who give annually to

Mount Sinai and the Annual giving program at

leadership levels.

The 1852 Society honors the growing number of

individuals who have generously named Mount

Sinai in their estate plans or who have established

life income gifts to benefit Mount Sinai.


Nearly 400 people attended this year’s Mount Sinai Alumni Weekend

in April. Diagnosis? “An overwhelming success,” declared Director of

Alumni Relations Stephen DeSalvo.

Alumni Reunite

1-2. attendees of The Old guard

Reception and Reunion celebration

dinner, honoring MSSM alumni and

former MSMC residents, interns, and

fellows prior to 1985, past Alumni

Award recipients and Life Members;

the 25th Silver Anniversary classes

were also honored.

3-4. The alumni dinner dance,

held on Saturday night at the Pierre

Hotel, where Martin goldstein, MD

presented a check for $100,000 from

The Mount Sinai Alumni Association

to support the Mount Sinai Alumni

Memorial Scholarship Fund.

5. The awarding of Jacobi

Medallions, which have been given

by The Mount Sinai Alumni since 1952

for distinguished achievement in the

field of medicine or extraordinary

service to the Hospital, the School,

or the Alumni Association. Honorees

were presented with the award by

Lloyd Mayer, MD, Director of the

Immunology Institute, Professor

of Medicine, and Chief of the

Divisions of gastroenterology and

Clinical Immunology, who served

as Chair of the Jacobi Medallion

Selection Committee.

This year’s recipients were [left

to right] Burton P. drayer, Md, Charles

and Marilyn Newman Professor and

Chairman of the Department of

Radiology; charlotte cunningham-

Rundles, Md, David S. gottesman

Professor of Medicine in Clinical

Immunology and Immunology

Institute Professor of Pediatrics;

elliot J. Rayfield, Md, Clinical

Professor of Medicine, Endocrinology,

Diabetes and Bone Disease, and

Immediate Past President of The

Mount Sinai Alumni; presenter Lloyd

Mayer, Md; Randall P. griepp, Md,

Professor and Chairman Emeritus of

the Department of Cardiothoracic

Surgery; and Hugh a. Sampson, Md,

Kurt Hirschhorn Professor of

Pediatrics at the Immunology

Institute, Dean for Translational

Biomedical Research and Director

of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute.

6. “Meet Your ancestors: a Morning

at the Hall of Human Origins” at

the American Museum of Natural

History. This sold-out event included

an interactive discussion on fossils

and ancient artifacts led by Alumni

Association Vice President Jeffrey

Laitman, PhD, Distinguished Professor

and Director of the Center for

Anatomy and Functional Morphology,

and Ian Tattersall, PhD, Curator

of Anthropology at the American

Museum of Natural History.

“It was great!” noted one young

attendee. “The museum is really

awesome!“

aluMni nEwS

1. 2.

3.

5.

6.

4.


MiniMalistaluMni

nEwS

A vAsculAr surgeon—And Mount sinAi grAd—expAnds the scope of cAre by reducing invAsiveness.

As a pioneer of minimally invasive surgery, Dr. Marin finds that his affinity for demanding situations strengthens him as a physician.

internship, residency, and chief residency at Columbia-

Presbyterian Medical Center. His research efforts led

to the development of a selective irradiation method

that helped suppress rejection

of transplanted arteries, and

he continued researching the

mechanisms of why human vein

bypass grafts fail after heart

bypass during his vascular

surgery fellowship at albert

Einstein College of Medicine/

Montefiore Medical Center.

His interest in finding less

invasive ways to treat

complex vascular diseases

Dr. Michael Marin, surgeon-in-Chief at the Mount sinai

Hospital and Chair of the Department of surgery, has

never been intimidated by the powerful pressures of a

life in medicine. in fact, he says, the pace

suits him. “it’s kind of frenetic at times,

and i like that.”

the pace may be frenetic,

but the surgeon is painstaking:

as a pioneer of minimally

invasive surgery, Dr. Marin finds

that his affinity for demanding

situations strengthen him as a

physician. He graduated from

Mount sinai school of Medicine,

completing his general surgery


Since our founding in 1896, The Mount Sinai Alumni Association has sought to foster lifelong relationships among our Alumni, encourage scholarship support for Mount Sinai students, and improve the quality of life for students and house staff. We pledge to work closely with Mount Sinai leadership to ensure continued success in achieving these goals. In 2009, The Mount Sinai Alumni embarked on a variety of exciting initiatives. We launched the Mount Sinai Connections website to help us better communicate with each other, The Medical Center, the School of Medicine, and The Alumni Association.

Our “Find a Sinai-Trained Doctor” network, already functional in South Florida, is now accessible at www.mountsinaiconnections.com. Our “Mentorship Program” puts students applying for residency positions in touch with Sinai graduates at all medical centers. And a new alumni merchandise store is now available online. In addition, our Journal, chaired by Drs. Jeffrey Freed, Albert Lefkovits, and Elliot Rayfield, helped raise $100,000 for the Alumni Endowed Scholarship, which supports student scholarships. We extend our deepest appreciation to all our alumni whose gifts helped make our scholarship program such a success. The Mount Sinai Alumni also honored the exceptional achievements of our faculty by awarding The Saul Horowitz Jr. Award to Alexander Kirschenbaum, MD, ’80; The J. Lester Gabrilove Award to Marek Mlodzek, PhD; The Mount Sinai Alumni Special Recognition Award to Anthony Squire, MD,’78, William J. Stein, MD, and Leslie

Schneier, MBA, MPH., The Achievement in Medical Education Award to Michael L. Marin, MD, ’84, and Daniel P. Perl, MD; and The Sidney Grossman Humanitarian Award to Arthur H. Aufses Jr., MD. Finally, we awarded the Jacobi Medallion to Elliot J. Rayfield, MD, Burton P. Drayer, MD, Charlotte Cunningham-Rundles, MD, Randall P. Griepp, MD, and Hugh A. Sampson, MD at the Alumni Dinner Dance on April 10. We applaud Dr. Lloyd Mayer, Chair of the Jacobi Medallion Selection Committee, and members of the committee, for their inspired choices. Our extraordinary progress over the past year would not have been possible without the dedicated support The Alumni Association received from Dr. Kenneth Davis, ’73, Dr. Dennis S. Charney, Trustee Andrew Heineman, our Trustee liason, Mark Kostegan, Phyllis Schnepf, Barbara Moss, our Alumni Executive Board and Officers and our Director, Stephen DeSalvo. We look forward to another innovative and productive year to come.


stays and speed recovery: two weeks for the stent graft

procedure, instead of three to six months for conventional

surgery. Dr. Marin began inventing his own stent devices

and formed a company to make them generally available;

he continues to develop new designs as a consultant to

the company. “Everything can be improved upon,” he

points out. “Each time we upgrade the device, we can

offer more treatment options to more types of patients.”

at Mount sinai, Dr. Marin is investigating new ways

to prevent aneurysms. “the data tell us that aneurysm

disease is genetic,” he says, “but nobody has been able to

isolate the genes. We’re laying the groundwork for genetic

studies that will help in the search. if we can locate

the genetic component, we can screen for the disease,

identify who’s at risk, and either prevent aneurysms from

developing or be able to treat them before the risk of

rupturing arises.”

Dr. Marin added, “People can die from this disease—

lucille Ball, albert Einstein—but today we are making

tremendous progress.” –Kristin Lund

brought him to a turning point in 1992, just months after

he became an attending surgeon at Montefiore.

“a patient came to me with an abdominal aortic

aneurysm that was close to rupturing,” Dr. Marin recalls.

“But he had other medical problems and was too ill

for conventional surgery. i had been thinking about

how to treat patients who weren’t good candidates for

open surgery, and this was an opportunity to search

for a new solution.”

Working with argentine surgeon Dr. Juan Parodi,

Dr. Marin operated on his patient using a minimally

invasive stent graft technique invented by Dr. Parodi—

the first surgery of its kind in north america.

“We threaded a catheter up into the artery to place a

stent graft inside the aorta, where it attached above and

below the aneurysm so it could serve as a bypass,” says

Dr. Marin. “since then, i’ve performed about 1500 of these

surgeries. this procedure has substantially expanded the

population of patients who can be treated.”

Minimally invasive techniques also reduce hospital

MESSAgE FROM THE ALUMNI PRESIDENT Martin S. goldstein, MD


THE MOUNT SINAI ALUMNI LAUNCHES

“Find a doctor” network The Mount Sinai Alumni recently launched a “Find a

Sinai-Trained Doctor” network for alumni of Mount

Sinai School of Medicine and The Mount Sinai

Medical Center who have relocated outside the New

York City area. The program allows Mount Sinai-

trained physicians to connect with each other and

to refer patients to fellow Mount Sinai physicians.

Southern Florida was the first such region to

launch a network outside the New York area, and

The Mount Sinai Alumni plans to expand to Chicago

later this year. More locally, similar network-building

is underway in Connecticut and other areas north

of the city.

For more information about the program,

please contact Stephen DeSalvo, Director of

Alumni Relations, at (212) 241-4694 or

[email protected], or visit the

network at www.mountsinaiconnections.com.

WHITE COAT CEREMONY

Match DayThe annual rite of physician passage took place on March 18, 2010, when over one hundred students at Mount Sinai School of Medicine opened envelopes to find out where they will spend their residency training. Of Mount Sinai’s graduating students, every one desiring a residency position for July 2010 was successfully placed.

aluMni nEwS

In September, Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s incoming students received their white coats—and a gift of stethoscopes—from the School’s alumni.

SPRINg/SUMMER 2010 49Special place. Special time.

THE CAMPAIGN FOR MOUNT SINAI

Special place. Special time.

THE CAMPAIGN FOR MOUNT SINAI

Your annual support through The Fund For Mount Sinai is an investment

in the future of The Mount Sinai Medical Center, assuring that our

commitment to outstanding clinical care, innovative medical education,

and boundless scientific research can continue to flourish.

Support the Fund For Mount Sinai

The Mount Sinai Medical CenterOffice of DevelopmentOne gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1049New York, NY 10029Phone 212-659-8500email [email protected] philanthropy.mountsinai.org

c2 Mount Sinai Science & Medicine

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IMage-IcIan.

Zahi A. Fayad, PhD makes Imaging magic at Mount Sinai. Dr. Fayad is Professor of Cardiology, Director of Cardiovascular Imaging Research at the Mount Sinai School

of Medicine and Mount Sinai Medical Center, Director of the Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, and Director and founder of the Eva and Morris Feld Imaging

Science Laboratory. Few in the world match Dr. Fayad’s experience in the application of imaging technology to detect and fight heart disease. He holds seven U.S.

and worldwide patents for imaging advances, and he works to improve patient care by using novel imaging methods to deliver atherosclerosis drugs with pinpoint

precision. Turn to page 32 to read about Dr. Fayad and see some astonishing images.

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Documents

Mount Sinai Science & Medicine Spring/Summer 2010