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.”