Mount Sinai’s CEO Kenneth L. Davis, MD, and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Dean Dennis S. Charney, MD, Featured at 2014 Aspen Ideas Festival June 24 - July 3
Free Skin Cancer Screenings at Mount Sinai Health Concourse
The future of medicine, the cost of American health care, data and drug discovery, and biotech innovation are among the topics to be explored by leaders from the Mount Sinai Health System during the 2014 Aspen Ideas Festival, to be held in Aspen, Colorado, June 24 to July 3. For 10 years, the Festival has gathered leading thinkers from around the world to discuss their work and the issues that inspire them.
Presented by The Aspen Institute and The Atlantic, the festival is unique in its dedication to the global exchange of ideas. This is the second year that Mount Sinai has partnered with the festival to lead discussions on health care in America.
Kenneth L. Davis, MD, CEO and President of the Mount Sinai Health System, and Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, will participate in four panel discussions. "Mount Sinai is creating new models for patient care, advancing research on the most debilitating diseases, and educating tomorrow's physicians to lead in the age of health care reform," said Dr. Davis. "Great ideas move forward at this festival every year, and we are excited to be part of it.”
Dr. Davis leads the Mount Sinai Health System, which encompasses the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and seven hospital campuses. As a neurobiologist, his research in Alzheimer’s disease led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve three of the first four drugs to become available for its treatment. During the Festival, Dr. Davis will speak on the following panels:
• Wednesday, June 25, at Noon in Paepcke Auditorium: “The Future of Academic Medicine in the U.S.”
• Thursday, June 26, at Noon in the Doerr-Hosier Center, McNulty Room: “Do we get what we pay for? The Cost of American Healthcare.”
• Sunday, June 29, at 1:20 pm at Aspen Meadows: “Discovery at the Speed of Knowledge.”
During a special “CEO Office Hours” on Thursday, June 26, Dr. Davis will invite questions about “The Future of Medicine” in the Paepcke Tent.
Dr. Charney will discuss industry collaborations at Mount Sinai that channel discoveries into the commercial development process, with the goal of delivering new treatments and devices to patients across the globe. “The opportunities in biomedical research are unprecedented, brought on by spectacular advances in technology and increased understanding of disease mechanisms and therapeutics,” said Dr. Charney, who is also President for Academic Affairs at the Mount Sinai Health System. “However, with the inflation-adjusted reductions in National Institutes of Health funding, currently 90 percent of all grant research requests are rejected. Never in the history of the NIH has it been more difficult to obtain research funding, especially for young investigators. We must work with industry to move discoveries more quickly from lab to market.”
Dr. Charney will participate in the following panel:
• Tuesday, July 1, at 5 pm in the Doerr-Hosier Center, McNulty Room: “Are we Maintaining our Edge in Biotech Innovation?”
Dr. Charney has led the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to unparalleled growth and higher national rankings. As a former researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Charney oversaw mood and anxiety disorder research programs. He was also the first to demonstrate that the drug ketamine is a fast-acting antidepressant, a discovery hailed as one of the most significant in decades.
Other Mount Sinai experts presenting as part of a series called “Med School 101” during the Festival’s “Spotlight Health” will be:
Angela Diaz, MD, the Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor in Adolescent Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, will present on “Adolescent Health.” Dr. Diaz is Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, which provides free, comprehensive health services to more than 11,000 youths each year. Dr. Diaz is also Chair of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the Institute of Medicine.
• Tuesday, June 24, at Noon at the Limelight Hotel
James Gladstone, MD, Co-Chief of Sports Medicine in the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopaedics at The Mount Sinai Hospital, will discuss breakthroughs in orthopaedics. Dr. Gladstone is an orthopaedic surgeon and leads a key clinical trial on cartilage restoration. His many accomplishments include joining the post-earthquake mission to Haiti and serving as medical advisor for the US Men’s Davis Cup tennis team.
• Tuesday, June 24, at 7:30 pm at the Limelight Hotel
David Muller, MD, Dean of Medical Education and the Marietta and Charles C. Morchand Chair for Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, will discuss “Innovations in Medical School Education.” Dr. Muller has worked to create new pathways to medical school and to redefine national standards for undergraduate and post-baccalaureate, pre-med requirements. In 1995, he co-founded the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program, now the largest academic physician home-visiting program nationally.
• Thursday, June 26, at 5:30 pm at the Limelight Hotel
Mount Sinai experts will also take part in a series of panel discussions, including:
Diane E. Meier, MD, the Catherine Gaisman Professor of Medical Ethics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is also the Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, a national organization devoted to increasing the quality of U.S. palliative care programs. She is also Co-Director of the Patty and Jay Baker National Palliative Care Center at Mount Sinai, which supports education, training and research aimed at improving access to quality palliative care.
• Tuesday, June 24, at 8 pm in the Doerr-Hosier Center, McNulty Room: “Colorado’s Right to Try Law: A Lifetime or False Hope?”
• Thursday, June 26, 10:20 am in the Koch Building, Booz Allen Room: “Who Will Care for US?”
• Thursday, June 26, at 1:20 pm in the Koch Building, Lauder Room: “Can We Die with Dignity?”
Angela Diaz, MD:
• Wednesday, June 25, at 1:20 pm in the Koch Building, Lauder Room: “Beyond the Hype: Does it Really Pay to Invest in Girls”
• Friday, June 27, at 8 am in the Doerr-Hosier Center, McNulty Room: “The Power of Play?”
A panel on the “Future of Robotic Surgery” will take place on Saturday, June 28, at 10 am at Aspen Meadows, with Eric Genden, MD, the Isidore Friesner Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Also Chief of the Division of Head and Neck Oncology at The Mount Sinai Hospital, Dr. Genden specializes in the treatment of patients with head and neck tumors using robotic surgery techniques that do not require external incisions. Dr. Genden founded one of the first robotic head and neck surgical programs in the world at Mount Sinai.
Mount Sinai is also inviting festival participants to the Mount Sinai Health Concourse, a 40 x 40 tent near the Koch tent, for special events, including:
Complimentary Skin Cancer Screenings: A team of Mount Sinai dermatologists will provide daily free melanoma screenings. Festival participants can schedule a 15-minute appointment, using a mobile device or on site. At last year’s festival, the Mount Sinai team performed approximately 400 melanoma screenings and identified dozens of melanomas, precancerous lesions, atypical moles and non-melanoma skin cancers. The screenings will be held from 1 pm to 4:45 pm on June 24; 8 am to Noon and 1 pm to 4:45 pm from June 25 to July 2; and from 8 am to Noon on July 3.
Mount Sinai to Present da Vinci® Surgical Robot
The da Vinci will be demonstrated from June 24 to June 26 in the Mount Sinai Health Concourse from 9 am to 5 pm. Ash Tewari, MD, MBBS, MCh, the Kyung Hyun Kim Chair of Urology of the Milton and Carroll Petrie Department of Urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, will be on site to demonstrate on June 26.
Mount Sinai to Present 3D Brain Surgery Simulator
Mount Sinai will demonstrate a 3D neurosurgical simulator called the Surgical Rehearsal Platform (SRP) by Surgical Theater, LLC in the Aspen Innovations Gallery from 8 am to 5 pm for the duration of the Festival. Mount Sinai surgeons were among the first to use the 3D simulator to prepare, plan, and rehearse surgeries, with the goal of improving results and reducing complications during actual surgeries. Errol Gordon, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, will be demonstrating the technology.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.
For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.
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