Press Release

Mount Sinai’s Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Sworn in as Honorary NYPD Surgeon

Dr. Fuster was one of five physicians sworn in yesterday as a member of the Society of Honorary Police Surgeons of the City of New York.

(September 14, 2012)

Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Director of Mount Sinai Heart, was one of five physicians sworn in yesterday as a member of the Society of Honorary Police Surgeons of the City of New York (NYPD) by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

The Society is comprised of physicians who display expertise in one of six specialties: Cardiology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Internal Medicine, and Vascular Surgery. When service members or their immediate family members are injured, the NYPD calls upon the closest and most appropriate Honorary Surgeon to tend to the patient upon his or her arrival at a medical facility.

Any NYPD service member can nominate a physician to the society. Nominees go through the same intensive vetting process as any other member of the NYPD including background checks and fingerprinting.

"It is a privilege to be named an Honorary Police Surgeon and asked to be of service to members of the NYPD who are of service to this city and put their lives on the line every day," said Dr. Fuster who also serves as Mount Sinai's Physician-in-Chief, The Mount Sinai Medical Center, Director of the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health, and the Richard Gorlin, MD/Heart Research Foundation Professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Dr. Fuster has earned international recognition as one of the world's most acclaimed cardiologists in research, education, and clinical care. He is the only cardiologist to have ever received the two highest gold medal awards and all four research awards from the world's four major cardiovascular organizations. To date, he has published more than 900 articles on coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, and thrombosis.

Twenty-six universities worldwide have granted Dr. Fuster honorary doctorates. His many external titles include Past President of the A Heart Association; Past President of the World Heart Federation; Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, where he served as Chair of the Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease; and General Director of the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares, the equivalent of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute in Spain.

After receiving his medical degree from Barcelona University and completing an internship at Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Dr. Fuster spent several years at the Mayo Clinic, first as a resident and later as Professor of Medicine and Consultant in Cardiology. In 1981, he came to Mount Sinai School of Medicine as head of Cardiology. From 1991 to 1994, he was Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He returned to Mount Sinai in 1994 as Director of the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute.

Also in attendance at the ceremony was Eli J. Kleinman, MD, MPH, Supervising Chief Surgeon of the NYPD who oversees the unique network of elite physicians in New York City and the surrounding boroughs who pledge to assist injured members of the NYPD and their immediate family members when they are in need of medical treatment.

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 the leading medical schools in the United States. The Medical School is noted for innovation in education, biomedical research, clinical care delivery, and local and global community service. It has more than 3,400 faculty in 32 departments and 14 research institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and by U.S. News and World Report.

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. In 2012, U.S. News and World Report ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital 14th on its elite Honor Roll of the nation's top hospitals based on reputation, safety, and other patient-care factors. Mount Sinai is one of 12 integrated academic medical centers whose medical school ranks among the top 20 in NIH funding and by U.S. News and World Report and whose hospital is on the U.S. News and World Report Honor Roll. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 560,000 outpatient visits took place.

For more information, visit http://www.mountsinai.org.
Find Mount Sinai on:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mountsinainyc
Twitter @mountsinainyc
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/mountsinainy

# # #

Tags: Cardiovascular Research Institute, Heart - Cardiology & Cardiovascular Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Health System, Patient Care

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.