• Press Release

Mount Sinai School of Medicine Awarded Grant by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation

The grant will go toward instilling in students a deeper appreciation of chronic illness and the plight of the medically disenfranchised.

  • (December 07, 2010)

Mount Sinai School of Medicine has been awarded a $417,276 grant from The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation to expand its longitudinal educational model by implementing the Interclerkship Ambulatory Care Track (InterACT), a novel clinical curriculum that places select third-year medical students at the center of the care of patients within their community.

InterACT will provide third-year students with a year-long clinical experience grounded in the foundations of ambulatory medicine and chronic illness care. It will cultivate students’ commitment to the practice of longitudinal patient-centered care, helping them learn how to navigate health care systems while addressing the social, economic and cultural factors that impact chronic illness care in an urban setting. Through these experiences, students will develop a deeper appreciation of chronic illness, advocacy and the plight of the medically disenfranchised.

“Our school priorities for innovation in education and training are primary care, translational research, and global health,” said David Muller, MD, Dean for Medical Education and Associate Professor and Chair of Medical Education at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “These are society's three areas of greatest need and InterACT will push us to the forefront of schools that are trying to train the next generation of physicians who will deliver equal healthcare to all.”

Since the 1960’s, the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation has focused its resources specifically on improving the education of health professionals, particularly physicians. From the end of World War II through the mid-1960s, the Foundation supported the efforts of medical schools to expand and strengthen their basic science faculties. During that time, the Foundation also began supporting the emergent fields of basic reproductive biology, human reproduction, and family planning, and fostered their incorporation into the biological, behavioral, and social science bases of academic obstetrics and gynecology.

“This generous grant from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation will not only provide the resources to help support our work, it will elevate the prominence of our efforts to address the need for leaders in primary care and help make InterACT a model that other schools will emulate,” said Dr. Muller.

About The Mount Sinai Medical Center

The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Established in 1968, Mount Sinai School of Medicine is one of few medical schools embedded in a hospital in the United States. It has more than 3,400 faculty in 32 departments and 15 institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institute of Health funding and by U.S. News & World Report. The school received the 2009 Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Service from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is a 1,171-bed tertiary- and quaternary-care teaching facility and one of the nation's oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks The Mount Sinai Hospital among the nation's best hospitals based on reputation, patient safety, and other patient-care factors. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 530,000 outpatient visits took place.

For more information, visit www.mountsinai.org. Follow us on Twitter @mountsinainyc.


About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical 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 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 11 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2024-2025.

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.