NEW YORK (PRWEB)
October 01, 2021

The Arnhold Institute for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and NYC Health + Hospitals today announced the four inaugural grant awardees of the CURE-19 Research Pilot Projects, an initiative to support collaborative, interdisciplinary COVID-19 research to better understand the novel virus that has transformed health care globally. Each winner will receive $25,000 to support their research project thanks to funding by Icahn Mount Sinai.

The CURE-19 Research Pilot Projects will support new COVID-19 research over the next five years, with an emphasis on projects related to disease control for large communities, informatics and decision support systems, addressing structural racism and social determinants of health, translational science research, and evidence-based interventions and policies. The projects will also address the long-term effects of COVID-19, social and environmental determinants of COVID-19, and maternal and child health related to COVID-19.

“Elmhurst is thrilled to collaborate with our colleagues at Mount Sinai to further understand the relationship between COVID-19 and community, clinical, and socio-economic variables,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst CEO Helen Arteaga Landaverde, MPH. “We saw first-hand how terribly impacted our precious community was in the early days and weeks of the pandemic. However, that impact will have lasting effects for decades and generations to come. It is critical, as community health care providers, to thoroughly understand these impacts and better adapt our care and support services to those needs.”

“Congratulations to the four inaugural grant awardees of the CURE-19 Research Pilot Projects,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens CEO Neil J. Moore, MBA, MPA, FACHE. “By partnering with our neighboring health institutions, our experts will be able to collect larger samples of information to draw stronger conclusions and correlations that will ultimately help address health needs in these communities, now and in the future.”

“We are excited to fund the first cohort of research studies under the CURE-19 collaboration with NYC Health + Hospitals,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Icahn Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs of the Mount Sinai Health System. “The pandemic has disproportionately affected vulnerable populations. We must understand the systemic issues in order to address inequities in medicine and provide equitable care that improves health outcomes and enhances pandemic preparedness and response initiatives.”

The inaugural research grant winners and their projects include:

1. Environmental Impact on Outcomes: Saadiyah Bilal, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Icahn Mount Sinai, will examine the relationship between neighborhood-level community variables with clinical outcomes and vaccination rates for patients with COVID-19.

2. Community Health Care Workers: Stanley Pierre, MD, MPA, Patient Safety Coordinator and Director of the Clinical Centers of Excellence Development Program, NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens, will examine how community health care workers can promote equity in vaccine access and trust to historically marginalized and vulnerable communities.

3. Maternal COVID-19 Vaccination: Uday Patil, MD, Director of Neonatology and Newborn Services at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, and Global Health and Health Systems Design, at Icahn Mount Sinai, will examine the transfer of passive immunity against COVID-19 to newborns after vaccination of mothers in diverse, multiethnic communities that are often underserved and underrepresented.

4. Opioid Overdose During Pandemic: Siri Shastry, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Icahn Mount Sinai, will examine the impact of COVID-19 on risk behaviors of patients with non-fatal opioid overdose in the Emergency Department, while understanding the influence of structural, community, and network factors.

The four inaugural research grant winners were required to submit a proposal that included a project summary or abstract, research description that emphasized its focus and significance, proposed timeline, list of principal and co-principal investigators, and more. The proposals were reviewed by a committee of research leaders from the CURE-19 partner institutions, who scored them on criteria including overall impact, significance, innovation, and approach.

The research pilot projects are part of a larger partnership known as the COVID-19 Unit for Research at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst and /Queens (CURE-19), a collaboration between Mount Sinai’s Arnhold Institute for Global Health and NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst Global Health Institute that formed during the initial peak of the pandemic in 2020. CURE-19 translates data, experiences, and lessons from clinicians at the Mount Sinai Health System, NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, and NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens into research to address both the global pandemic and root causes of health disparities in New York City.

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About the Mount Sinai Health System

The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City’s largest academic medical system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. We advance medicine and health through unrivaled education and translational research and discovery to deliver care that is the safest, highest-quality, most accessible and equitable, and the best value of any health system in the nation. The Health System includes approximately 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 free-standing joint-venture centers; more than 410 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s “Honor Roll” of the top 20 U.S. hospitals and among the top in the nation by specialty: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Urology, and Rehabilitation. Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital is ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” among the country’s best in four out of 10 pediatric specialties. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked among the Top 20 nationally for ophthalmology. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is one of three medical schools that have earned distinction by multiple indicators: ranked in the top 20 by U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Medical Schools,” aligned with a U.S. News & World Report

“Honor Roll” Hospital, and No. 14 in the nation for National Institutes of Health funding. Newsweek’s “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals” ranks The Mount Sinai Hospital as No. 1 in New York and top five globally, and Mount Sinai Morningside as top 20 globally, and “The World’s Best Specialized Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Heart as No. 1 in New York and No. 5 globally and the Division of Gastroenterology as No. 5 globally. For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

About NYC Health + Hospitals

NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan – all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 42,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit http://www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NYCHealthSystem/ or Twitter at @NYCHealthSystem.