• Press Release

Mount Sinai Diversity Innovation Hub Named Among Top 50 Leaders in Digital Health for 2020

Diversity Programs team group shot
  • New York, NY
  • (January 13, 2020)

The Diversity Innovation Hub (DIH) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is among the Top 50 in Digital Health for 2020, receiving a Diversity And Inclusion Leadership Award for its efforts to improve health care through technology.

The DIH launched in fall 2019 to address the lack of women and people of color in innovation and technology, to foster ideas and solutions that address social and structural inequalities, and to accelerate efforts to advance diversity and inclusion in medicine and science. The initiative—one of the first of its kind among health care systems—aims to diversify the pipeline for career paths in health care innovation and technology through mentorship, training, and networking opportunities. The DIH is spearheaded by Mount Sinai’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

The awards are sponsored by the venture fund Rock Health, the law firm Fenwick & West, Goldman Sachs, and Pacific Western Bank. Winners are chosen by vote of their peers in digital health.

“We are honored to receive this award as we continue to lay the groundwork to create meaningful change in the health field. We may be a growing hub, but this worthy acknowledgement shows the importance of our mission to advance diversity and inclusion through innovation,” says Gary C. Butts, MD, Dean for Diversity Programs, Policy, and Community Affairs, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Mount Sinai Health System. “We welcome the role as a leading incubator in connecting the dots between innovation and diversity and inclusion, and we look forward to expanding programs to educate our students, trainees, and staff, as well as our neighboring communities that we serve, including Harlem.”

In 2019, DIH piloted two programs that will continue this year. The first is a Student Innovation Fellowship that introduces medical students who are female or from groups underrepresented in medicine to the fields of biodesign, health care venture capital, and technology. The second is a curriculum in innovation and design thinking for the North Eastern Regional Alliance MedPrep Program, an educational pipeline program that engages undergraduate students from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds over three years to become competitive applicants.

The DIH will host its first Pitch Day this spring at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Winners will receive funds to further develop their plans and ongoing mentorship from the hub’s board of advisors and partners, including community and tech leaders from Silicon Harlem; One Hundred Black Men, Inc. of New York; National Medical Fellowships, Inc.; Radical Health; and RubiconMD.

“We are happy to lead the charge in making a difference in Mount Sinai communities, but also as a model of innovation to diversify the entire health care industry,” says Dennis S. Charney, MD, the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs of the Mount Sinai Health System. “At the Icahn School of Medicine, we’ve taken many steps to ensure that diversity and inclusion remain a central part of our mission as an institution, and the DIH is a truly groundbreaking project, as noted by this recognition for its leadership in the digital health space.”

Mount Sinai is among a distinguished group of leaders and organizations including Kaiser Permanente, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Philips Health recognized for achievements that bring technological advancements to health care and support progress towards a better health care system. The winners were be recognized at the Top 50 in Digital Health Awards dinner hosted by the four sponsoring firms on Sunday, January 12, which kicked off the JP Morgan Health Conference in San Francisco.

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.

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

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