Mount Sinai Serves as Official Medical Services Provider and Advisor on COVID-19 Safety for Athletes at 2021 US Open
Will administer all COVID-19 testing for players and entourages to ensure safety during the tournament
For the ninth consecutive year, Mount Sinai will serve as the official medical services provider for the 2021 US Open Tennis Championships, which begin on Monday, August 30, and run through Sunday, September 12. Mount Sinai orthopedic surgeons, sports medicine physicians, and musculoskeletal radiologists will provide top-level care to elite athletes onsite at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York.
Mount Sinai medical experts will also be providing care to athletes during the US Open Qualifying Tournament, which began on Tuesday, August 24, and runs through Friday, August 27. The Qualifying Tournament is not open to the public this year due to COVID-19 safety protocols.
As Chief Medical Officer of the US Open, Alexis Colvin, MD, Professor in the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and team physician for the U.S. Billie Jean King Cup Team, will lead care for the athletes during the tournament.
“It’s an honor to return to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center as the official medical provider of the US Open. We are proud to have provided top-notch, comprehensive care of these athletes for nearly a decade,” said Dr. Colvin. “Our team of experts set the standard in 2020 for the return of international sporting events amid the coronavirus pandemic and we look forward to doing so again this year.”
The Mount Sinai COVID Lab will administer all COVID-19 testing for the athletes and their entourages at the players’ hotels and onsite at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The lab was created by Mount Sinai to provide a highly accurate, easy-to-use test at a fraction of the cost of other tests. Using advanced laboratory technology developed by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the test detects the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19 in saliva. It has the capacity to process 25,000 tests per day and will soon scale to 100,000 tests per day in the coming weeks.
The test was developed earlier this year in large part to provide students and staff members at New York City schools an effective and efficient testing program to support safe, in-school learning, helping to protect the school community and provide greater confidence to parents, students, educators, and staff members. In addition to in-school testing, the Mount Sinai COVID Lab initiative is available for commercial use in New York City at competitive pricing to organizations and businesses.
“Testing remains an important component of the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, and our blend of streamlined processes and state-of-the-art robotics and molecular detection technologies enables more reliable and accurate results,” said Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi, MD, PhD, Director of the Molecular Microbiology Laboratory at Mount Sinai Health System. “At first, our lab’s mission was to get kids back into their classrooms, and now we are thrilled that we can provide this express service to the elite athletes in order to get them back on the court. We're profoundly proud to be the official COVID-19 testing partner of USTA and to play an important role in keeping the athletes and their entourages virus-free.“
Mount Sinai is also committed to educating both players and spectators on practicing sun-safe habits while attending the event, and will provide daily complimentary sunscreen packets and hand sanitizer at kiosks located throughout the tennis grounds. Additionally, new this year, the USTA has added its own mental health advisor who will be available to athletes onsite.
Mount Sinai is partnering again with iHeart Media to amplify the US Open partnership. iHeart Media's top New York contemporary hit radio station and top New York variety radio station, Z100 and 106.7 Lite FM, respectively, will feature Mount Sinai announcements and will help promote a Mount Sinai sweepstakes with two grand prizes of tickets to a final match of the 2021 US Open.
“We look forward to hosting another seamless US Open, which wouldn’t be possible without our highly skilled team of infectious disease experts, orthopedic surgeons, sports medicine physicians, and musculoskeletal radiologists at Mount Sinai Health System who have come together once again to create a meticulous health plan to minimize the risk of both injuries and COVID-19 infections alike,” said Bernard Camins, MD, Medical Director of Infection Prevention, Mount Sinai Health System. “We have a deep responsibility to keep athletes, staff, and spectators safe at this year’s tournament as New York continues to open up and we’ve implemented recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the New York State Department of Health, and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in order to do so. We’d like to remind everyone to remain vigilant by taking safety precautions such as staying home if you are sick, practicing frequent hand hygiene, social distancing, and wearing masks indoors.”
This is the seventh consecutive year the Department of Radiology at Mount Sinai is offering onsite diagnostic ultrasound and radiographic examinations to the tennis players to help diagnose musculoskeletal injuries. This group, led by Carlos Benitez, MD, Director of Musculoskeletal Imaging at Mount Sinai West and Associate Professor of Radiology at Icahn Mount Sinai, works closely with the tournament multi-specialty medical team to provide them with quick imaging consultations. Mount Sinai radiologists use the latest technology during the tournament including GE Healthcare LOGIQ e ultrasound devices and a CARESTREAM DRX-Revolution Mobile X-ray System. When MRIs are requested by the tournament physicians, the players are sent to The Mount Sinai Hospital and the studies are reviewed remotely at the US Open with a dedicated radiology workstation.
In addition to Dr. Colvin and Dr. Camins, Mount Sinai physicians supporting the 2021 US Open include:
Shawn Anthony, MD, MBA, Assistant Professor of Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery, Icahn Mount Sinai
Jeffrey Ciccone, MD, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Icahn Mount Sinai
Houman Danesh, MD, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, and Rehabilitation and Human Performance, Icahn Mount Sinai
James Gladstone, MD, Chief of the Sports Medicine Service, Mount Sinai Health System; and Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Icahn Mount Sinai
Amie Kim, MD, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Icahn Mount Sinai
Melissa Leber, MD, Assistant Professor of Sports Medicine, and Emergency Medicine, Icahn Mount Sinai, and Director of Emergency Department Sports Medicine at Mount Sinai
James Mattson, MD, Clinical Instructor of Rehabilitation, Icahn Mount Sinai
Trevor Pour, MD, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Icahn Mount Sinai
Christopher Reverte, MD, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Icahn Mount Sinai
Aruna Seneviratne, MD, Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, Icahn Mount Sinai
Eric Small, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Orthopedics, Icahn Mount Sinai
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.
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