News Release

Mount Sinai School of Medicine receives prestigious AAMC Grant for Chronic Illness Care education

Grant hopes to teach doctors of today and tomorrow how to care for the more than 100 million Americans afflicted with chronic disease

Grant and Award Announcement

The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine

(New York, NY) – The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) awarded Mount Sinai School of Medicine the Enhancing Education for Chronic Illness Care grant. The grant, totaling $125,000, is funded by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation to stimulate the development and implementation of innovative approaches for educating medical students and resident physicians on the challenges and rewards of caring for patients with chronic illnesses.

Dr. Erica Friedman, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medical Education, Dr. Mark Babyatsky, Residency Program Director and Dr. David Thomas, Medical Director, Division of General Internal Medicine are co-principal investigators on the grant.

Currently there are more than 100 million Americans afflicted with at least one chronic disease and 85 percent of Medicare beneficiaries have at least one chronic disease. The cost to the United States is staggering--75 percent of all health care spending goes to caring for those patients.

"The number of chronically ill increases as the elderly population grows. It is essential that we continue to educate our medical students and residents on a wide array of issues related to the care of people afflicted with chronic disease," states Dr. Freidman of Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

The grant will be used to redesign undergraduate and graduate medical education at Mount Sinai School of Medicine so the medical students and internal medicine residents can learn about and care for patients with chronic illness. The ultimate goal is to improve care of patients with chronic illness, both from the patient's and the healthcare team's perspectives.

A new approach to education
Dr. Friedman is spearheading the development and implementation for undergraduate medical education. The program will entail two longitudinal, team-based patient care experiences throughout the four year medical school curriculum: Seniors as Mentors (SAM) Program and the Chronic Care Team (CCT). Both experiences will involve students in a long-term relationship with chronically ill patients and their healthcare providers. During the third and fourth years of medical school, students will be paired up with Internal Medicine Residents to facilitate in patient follow-up and management after discharge from the hospital. This will help the transition from the individual learner to member of the healthcare team.

Drs. Thomas and Babyatsky will lead the development and implementation for the Internal Medicine residency training. Year one plans include a redesign of the Internal Medicine residency program to encompass disease management teams as a continuum between the inpatient and outpatient settings. These management teams will shepherd patients through the many transitions of care, and bridge these gaps, including acute care visits, inpatient admissions, emergency room visits and discharges to various venues. The inpatient and outpatient firms will be aligned in order to facilitate the communication during these hand-offs.

###

THE MOUNT SINAI MEDICAL CENTER

The Mount Sinai Hospital
The Mount Sinai Hospital is one of the nation's oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. Founded in 1852, Mount Sinai today is a 1,171-bed tertiary-care teaching facility that is internationally-acclaimed for excellence in clinical care.

Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Located in Manhattan, Mount Sinai School of Medicine is internationally recognized for ground-breaking clinical and basic-science research, and innovative approaches to medical education. Through the Mount Sinai Graduate School of Biological Sciences, Mount Sinai trains biomedical researchers with an emphasis on the rapid translation of discoveries of basic research into new techniques for fighting disease. One indication of Mount Sinai's leadership in scientific investigation is its receipt during fiscal year 2005 of $174.1 million in research support from the NIH. Mount Sinai School of Medicine is also known for unique educational programs such as the Humanities in Medicine program, which creates opportunities for liberal arts students to pursue medical school, and instructional innovations like The Morchand Center, the nation's largest program teaching students and physicians with "standardized patients" to become not only highly skilled, but compassionate caregivers. Long dedicated to improving its community, the School extends its boundaries to work with East Harlem and surrounding communities to provide access to health care and educational programs to at-risk populations.


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.