New York Academy of Medicine Awards Philip J. Landrigan, MD, 2009 Stephen Smith Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Public Health
Director of the Children's Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai and lead investigator for the National Children's Study, Dr. Landrigan helps shape environmental health policies worldwide.
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, DIH, whose research and recommendations have shaped environmental health policies worldwide, has been awarded the 2009 Stephen Smith Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Public Health by the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM).
Dr. Landrigan, who is the Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Director of Mount Sinai's Children's Environmental Health Center, is currently the lead investigator for the National Children’s Study (NCS) which is the largest study of children’s health and the environment ever launched in the United States.
The Stephen Smith award is among those that NYAM presents annually at its Anniversary Discourse and Awards Ceremony, which pays special tribute to individuals who have made distinguished contributions to health policy, public health, medicine, and scientific research. NYAM honors innovators in their respective fields that have made a profound difference-in basic science investigation, in therapeutic discovery, in helping shape critical health policy, and in public health impact at home and abroad.
I’m extremely grateful to have been at Mount Sinai all these years because Mount Sinai’s robust intellectual culture, tradition of academic freedom and strong commitment to the community have given me an incredible platform to do the work that I do, said Dr. Landrigan.
His early research into the effects lead poisoning led to the national removal of lead from gasoline and paint, actions that have produced a 90 percent decline in childhood lead poisoning over the past quarter century. Similar mandates were also adopted by other countries.
NCS, his most recent large-scale study, was launched in Queens, New York and Duplin, North Carolina in January of this year. Eventually involving more than 105 research sites nationwide, the study will examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of 100,000 children across the U.S., following them from before birth until age 21 to document how various environmental and genetic factors influence their health and development. Ultimately, NCS will be one of the richest research efforts geared towards studying children’s health and development and will form the basis of child health guidance, interventions, and policy for generations to come.
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The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. 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. Last year, nearly 50,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients, and there were nearly 450,000 outpatient visits to the Medical Center.
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Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, over 400 outpatient practices, nearly 300 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 7,300 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. We are consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals, receiving high "Honor Roll" status, and are highly ranked: No. 1 in Geriatrics and top 20 in Cardiology/Heart Surgery, Diabetes/Endocrinology, Gastroenterology/GI Surgery, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology/Lung Surgery, Rehabilitation, and Urology. New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is ranked No. 12 in Ophthalmology. U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” ranks Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital among the country’s best in several pediatric specialties.
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