Science serving society.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai In 1964, leaders of The Mount Sinai Medical Center had a bold new vision for medical education: a hospital-based medical school that was independent of a university affiliation. Almost half a century later, this concept has proven to be very successful; the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is now ranked among the top 20 medical schools in the United States. The School’s seamless connection to The Mount Sinai Hospital, which has cared for New York City’s most underserved communities since the middle of the 19th century, allows us to teach basic and translational science embedded in a clinical and social context. As a result, our students see and better understand a wide range of diseases that affect the most diverse patient population imaginable, and our scientists are able to translate their laboratory discoveries into improved diagnostics and therapies. Mount Sinai has always integrated research and clinical practice, and our long record of scientific firsts proves the wisdom of this approach. Graduates of our School of Medicine are known throughout the world for their
scientific expertise, clinical skills, devoted service, and professional leadership. They are also renowned for their integrity, altruism, and commitment to social justice. At Mount Sinai, lifelong values are taught through discourse, role modeling by our outstanding faculty, and through our honor code. We place the highest value on educating physicians and scientists who will be agents of constructive, lasting change. Our success is evidenced by the 2012 US News & World Report, which ranks Mount Sinai 18th out of 146 medical schools nationwide. Our goal is to enrich the medical field with humanistic, scholarly physicians who are self-directed, lifelong learners. Nothing could be more important to the future of medicine.
Cover: Becoming a Mount Sinai doctor begins with a walk in the neighborhood—the East Harlem Walking Tour, a rite of passage for the past decade that the New York Times followed in an article titled “Future Doctors, Crossing Borders; Lessons in East Harlem’s Culture, Diet and Health.”
At the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, lifelong values are taught through discourse, role modeling by our outstanding faculty, and through our honor code.
Passion Mount Sinai’s passion for service is rooted in a simple belief: that health care is a basic human right. For more than 150 years, Mount Sinai has served the medically disenfranchised and those in need, whether they live in Harlem or Haiti. Today, Mount Sinai continues to empower underserved communities and to ensure that high-quality medical care remains available to all. This passion for service has also led to the creation of numerous programs and centers that have served thousands of individuals locally, nationally, and around the world. It has enabled us to elevate standards of care and create national models of excellence. Some of these innovative programs and centers include: The Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, The Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program — the largest academic physician home-visiting service in the nation; the East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership — which was founded by Mount Sinai students to help provide care for the uninsured; and the Mount Sinai Global Health Center. Mount Sinai’s service to the community has been recognized by both the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). In 2009, Mount Sinai received the Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Service, one of the AAMC’s highest honors. The mission of the Center for Health Equity and Community Engaged Research at the Icahn School of Medicine is to improve the health and health care for populations who are most in need. The Center is dedicated to identifying causes of disparities in health and health care among underserved populations; creating interventions and sustainable, community-inspired programs to target those underlying causes; and devising innovative strategies to disseminate health messages to improve the health of minority communities. The Center is a nidus for researchers across Mount Sinai interested in health equity and community-engaged research. It also provides infrastructure to support their work and foster collaborations.
The class of 2016 recited an oath of conduct to uphold the health of society and the communities they serve.
Mentoring For generations, our faculty have been world-renowned for their technical expertise, scientific innovation, and visionary leadership. They have worked side by side with students to prepare them to become change agents and role models. This tradition in mentorship continues, with many Icahn School of Medicine graduates becoming Mount Sinai faculty who guide our students toward success. A mentor’s job is to recognize a student’s potential and to ensure that it is fully realized. Faculty help students channel their passion, their intellectual vigor, and their ambitions so that they can become the great physicians and scientists of tomorrow.
Vision Mount Sinai’s history is rich with the stories of physicians and scientists who had the vision and the courage to push the boundaries of science and medicine. This drive to succeed and grow was most recently embodied in our new Leon and Norma Hess Center for Science and Medicine. This state-of-the-art facility serves as a focal point for our translational research efforts in cancer, brain science, cardiovascular research, children’s health, genomics, and imaging. With almost a half million square feet of space, the Hess Center increased our overall
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in research funding by faculty, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC)
research capacity by a third. Students have the opportunity to work alongside internationally acclaimed researchers who are unraveling the complexities of many disorders and diseases. Mount Sinai students are encouraged to individualize their educational plan. They may pursue dual degrees via our MD/ PhD, MD/MPH, MD/Masters in Bioethics and MD/Masters in Clinical Research programs. They may work with mentors through the Individual Scholarly Project and Independent Research Experience (INSPIRE) — a fourth-year program that provides several months of protected time to undertake meaningful scholarship. They may also pursue a scholarly year by working closely with the Medical Student Research Office to arrange a mentored program. Innovation in clinical training includes the Longitudinal Clinical Experience, in which all first year students join a clinical mentor’s practice and follow chronically ill patients for the first two years of medical school to learn about illness from the patients’ perspective. A third-year program, InterACT, is available to students who are interested in a more intense longitudinal urban, ambulatory medicine curriculum. The Center for Multicultural and Community Affairs supports our students and school by creating an environment that values diversity. It focuses on recruiting, retaining, and advancing students, trainees, and faculty as they pursue careers in Medicine. It is also the hub of numerous community outreach and leadership programs. Our newest program, FlexMed, is a first-in-nation approach to early medical school acceptance for half of every incoming class. It is an expansion of our renowned Humanities and Medicine Program and is designed to drive a fundamental shift in premedical education. In response to major changes in the priorities of biomedical science and health care, FlexMed, which will be launched in the fall of 2013, offers early acceptance to college sophomores from any major with no MCAT requirement and a more progressive pre-med preparation.
From Argentina to Uganda, East Harlem to India, Mount Sinai works to improve the health of underserved populations by training tomorrow’s leaders in global health.
(IME) in 2001 and became one of the first U.S. medical schools to develop academies for educational excellence. The IME is dedicated to enhancing the teaching skills of our faculty and residents, and assisting faculty with their professional development. It has been named one of 17 interdisciplinary institutes dedicated to advancing translational research and education at Mount Sinai. The rewards from investing in our faculty come back to our students, our institution, our patients, our community, and benefit populations in need worldwide.
Legacy Applying Our clinicians and scientists helped establish Mount Sinai as a hub of innovation and discovery. From Crohn’s disease and Tay-Sachs, to combination chemotherapy, the link between asbestos and cancer, and the nation’s first Department of Geriatrics, Mount Sinai is the home of more “firsts” than any other medical center in the country. Although these notable physicians and researchers were the giants of their time, they saw themselves as servants to the community. In addition to being highly accomplished, they also embodied Mount Sinai’s core values—compassion, innovation, a desire to share knowledge, and an innate drive to better the world.
Leadership Mount Sinai’s leadership has been felt across the globe, from launching the first emergency relief efforts after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti to organizing educational conferences that address curriculum reform. Mount Sinai believes all students have it within themselves to serve as advocates for change. Learning leadership requires strong educators. Recognizing this, Mount Sinai created the Institute for Medical Education
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai participates in the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Candidates for admission should file their AMCAS application no later than October 15 preceeding the year for which admission is sought. Additional information will be requested of all applicants. Those who submit an AMCAS application will be contacted by email and directed to a website where they can complete our online Supplemental Application. Supplemental Applications can be submitted from July 1 through November 15. Icahn School of Medicine has a rolling admissions process. The earliest date of notification of acceptance is generally November 1. Applicants who have been offered admission to the school must respond within two weeks after receipt of notification. For more information about Mount Sinai’s application process and the admissions criteria, please visit: www.mssm.edu Contact: admissions@mssm.edu
Mount Sinai’s service to the community has been recognized by both the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges.
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