• Press Release

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Named to New NIH Stroke Research Network

Research collaborative network aims to expedite stroke clinical trials, build greater expertise in stroke.

  • New York
  • (December 20, 2013)

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai joins a top-flight network of 25 regional stroke centers announced by the National Institute of Health that will focus on prevention, treatment, and recovery from stroke. As part of the NIH Stroke Trials Network (NIHStrokeNet), the medical school will receive a 5-year, $1.3 million grant to build a collaborative research infrastructure for a regional coordinating stroke center.

"As conceived by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the network is intended to improve the efficiency with which we perform clinical trials in stroke," said Stanley Tuhrim, MD, one of principal investigators of the inaugural NYC Collaborative Stroke Center and Director of the Mount Sinai Stroke Center. "The goal of our effort is to pull together several major medical institutions in the City [Mount Sinai Health System, and several hospitals affiliated with Albert Einstein College of Medicine , and NYU School of Medicine] to perform clinical trials and develop and test ways of improving acute stroke treatment, prevention and rehabilitation he added. "We hope to be able to get trials done more expeditiously." To that end, the New York City Collaborative Regional Coordinating Center (NYCCRCC) will work with sister programs across the nation, the National Coordinating Center at the University of Cincinnati, and NINDS.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke will fund and manage the stroke network. NINDS has spearheaded advances in stroke prevention, treatment, and recovery.

The NYCC-RCC research team, working with the extended stroke community, will propose and conduct stroke protocols to be administered within the network and also train the next generation of clinical researchers in stroke. The network concept emerged from an NINDS planning effort in which stroke experts were asked what they viewed as most important in reducing death and disability due to stroke in the United States. Building a more seamless transition from safety and efficacy trials and phase II and III clinical trials was given top priority.

Earlier this year, Mount Sinai became the first medical center in New York State to be recognized by The Joint Commission with Disease-Specific Care Comprehensive Stroke Center Certification. The Certification recognizes those hospitals that have state-of-the-art infrastructure, staff, and training to treat patients with the most complex strokes.

A stroke occurs when blood flow to the brain is interrupted, causing brain cells in the immediate area to die because they stop getting oxygen. Stroke can also occur when a vessel breaks and bleeds into the brain. Nearly 800,000 strokes are reported each year in the U.S.. NIH StrokeNet is focused on advancing the treatment of acute stroke, both ischemic and intracerebral strokes.


About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the nation’s leading integrated academic health systems and one of the largest in the New York metropolitan area. Its comprehensive system includes seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, over 600 research and clinical laboratories, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing. Together, the Health System comprises approximately 48,000 employees, more than 9,000 physicians, and 8,600 nurses.

As a leading learning health system, Mount Sinai combines clinical expertise with scientific discovery to improve patient care while training the next generation of health care and biomedical leaders. The Health System provides care across every stage of life, from prenatal care through geriatrics, while advancing personalized medicine through artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research.

Mount Sinai is consistently recognized among the nation’s leading academic health systems for patient care, research, and education. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 1 in New York by Newsweek and No. 5 on the magazine’s World’s Best Hospitals list. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ranks No. 11 among U.S. medical schools and No. 1 among freestanding medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding, reflecting the strength of its scientific enterprise and leadership in biomedical research.