AMA Foundation Funds Pilot Fellowship Program with Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to Address Disparities in LGBTQ Health Care
The American Medical Association Foundation (AMAF) today announced a new collaboration with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai to underwrite a pilot fellowship program to address health care disparities faced by the LGBTQ community. This pilot program is designed to complement the AMAF’s National Fellowship Program, which will release a Request for Proposal (RFP) to U.S. MD and DO educational institutions in early 2021.
Recognizing that training the next generation of physicians requires promoting excellence in LGBTQ health as well as advocacy for the unique sets of needs that patients in the LGBTQ community face, the Icahn School of Medicine will offer an LGBTQ Healthcare Fellowship through its Department of Medicine’s Institute for Advanced Medicine (IAM), that will launch in the 2022 academic year. This pilot fellowship will be led by Michael Gaisa, MD, PhD, Director of the Anal Dysplasia Program at the Mount Sinai Health System. Under Dr. Gaisa’s leadership, the prospective fellow will focus on evidence-based, patient-centered, integrative and culturally competent clinical care, to include social, cultural and mental health.
“The goals of the Mount Sinai LGBTQ Healthcare Fellowship are in complete alignment with the AMA Foundation’s National LGBTQ Fellowship Program,” said John D. Evans, Chairman of the LGBTQ Fellowship Commission. “I am thrilled the AMA Foundation is underwriting this pilot fellowship so that we can learn from Dr. Gaisa and thereby enhance health care for LGBTQ patients. This is a unique opportunity to provide the LGBTQ Fellowship Commission with vital information to further enrich the RFP process and best practices in LGBTQ health care.”
The AMAF will provide one year of grant funding to underwrite the pilot LGBTQ Healthcare Fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine with the overarching goal to create a sustainable, ongoing program that supports and advances LGBTQ health education, mutually benefiting both the AMAF and Mount Sinai Health System. “We're grateful and excited to collaborate with the American Medical Association Foundation,” says Dr. Michael Gaisa. “It is our shared vision to reduce disparities and improve quality and accessibility of LGBTQ health care across the US through education of physician leaders. Together we're striving to set national standards for post-graduate education in LGBTQ medicine.”
First announced in January 2020, the National LGBTQ Fellowship Program at the AMAF is designed to create a pipeline of LGBTQ health specialists who are able to serve the health care needs of the LGBTQ community while growing the pool of competent instructors who will pass their knowledge to the next generation of LGBTQ providers. The LGBTQ Fellowship Commission is guiding the national fellowship program inception to ensure the health needs of the LGBTQ community are optimally considered throughout the RFP process.
Since 1950, the AMA Foundation has been a leader in health care philanthropy with programs that advance public health and medical education. As the philanthropic arm of the world’s largest physician organization, the AMAF has awarded more than $121 million in grants and scholarships, demonstrating nationwide programmatic excellence.
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 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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