Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Appoints Rainier P. Soriano, MD, as Senior Associate Dean, Curricular Affairs
After a lengthy national search, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has appointed Rainier P. Soriano, MD, as Senior Associate Dean for Curricular Affairs in Medical Education.
Board certified in Geriatric Medicine, Dr. Soriano is a tenured professor in Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Medicine, and Medical Education at Icahn Mount Sinai. He has had a distinguished career as both an educator and a physician, twice receiving the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Institute for Medical Education (IME), in 2003 and 2009. Other distinctions include the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and the Gold Humanism Award.
“Rainier Soriano has all the ingredients of a great educator: he is an insightful and engaging teacher; he is beloved by students and puts their learning needs above all else; he is a fabulous research and career mentor; he has a sophisticated knowledge of technology and its impact on education; and he is visionary, with exciting ideas about what and how we need to teach today in anticipation of how we will practice medicine tomorrow,” says David Muller, MD, FACP, Dean for Medical Education, Icahn Mount Sinai.
Dr. Soriano came to the United States after receiving his MD from the University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. He completed his residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine (Primary Care) at Englewood Hospital in Englewood, New Jersey, which was a Mount Sinai training program at that time. He joined The Mount Sinai Hospital for his Geriatrics fellowship, and also served as Chief Fellow.
Dr. Soriano’s experience in medical education is extensive. He was the Co-Director of the Medicine-Geriatrics Clerkship from 1999-2006; directed the Art & Science of Medicine Course from 2004-2014; has been Co-Director of the Curriculum and Director of Education Technology for the last 10 years, and was promoted to Associate Dean of Curriculum and Clinical Competence in 2019. Dr. Soriano has directed the Medical Student Training in Aging Research Program at Icahn Mount Sinai, and recently received a five-year T35 grant from the National Institute on Aging, establishing it as one of eight National Training Centers for the program. He is the editor and co-author of the leading textbook in physical diagnosis, Bates’ Guide to Physical Examination and History Taking, and also served as the Associate Editor for Geriatrics for MedEdPORTAL: The Journal of Teaching and Learning Resources of the AAMC.
Student wellness will continue to be of great importance. “Medical school is hard. We can’t make it less hard, but we can design our curriculum to have built-in natural pauses for students to decompress, to reflect on their wellness, and to engage with faculty and other students if they need support,” says Dr. Soriano.
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.