Eyal Shemesh

Biography

Dr. Shemesh serves as the Chief of the Division of Behavioral and Developmental Health in the Department of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai Medical Center.  Dr. Shemesh is trained as both a pediatrician and a psychiatrist.  He has published several dozens of scientific articles on the emotional impact of chronic illnesses in children and adults, with a special emphasis on distress, posttraumatic stress, depression, and nonadherence to medical treatments.  Dr. Shemesh’s federally funded research currently concentrates on how to measure and improve adherence and posttraumatic stress in medically-ill children and adults.

Dr. Shemesh has created or headed several programs to address the emotional needs of medically ill patients, including I-COPE (Interdisciplinary Cardiology Outpatient Program @ Elmhurst hospital center), a collaboration with the cardiology clinic at Elmhurst Hospital Medical Center; EMPOWER (Enhancing, Managing, and Promoting Well-being and Resiliency), within the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai; and BHIP (Behavioral Health Integrated Program) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  In addition, he was the medical director of a program to address the needs of emotionally traumatized children within the Divisions of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Traumatic Stress Studies at Mount Sinai – the  CATCH program (Children After Trauma Care and Health).

Dr. Shemesh’s interests include teaching and training a new generation of clinicians in providing and researching the best way to provide multidisciplinary, compassionate patient-centered care.  His division hosts a psychology externship program that trains psychologists in caring for children with medical illnesses, and he actively participates in the Mount Sinai Medical School’s translational research teaching initiative.