Mount Sinai's Arnhold Institute for Global Health and NYC Health + Hospitals Announce Inaugural Winners of CURE-19 Research Grants and Pilot Projects
Will support new COVID-19 research over the next five years Winners will each receive $25,000 to assist their work
The Arnhold Institute for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and NYC Health + Hospitals today announced the four inaugural grant awardees of the CURE-19 Research Pilot Projects, an initiative to support collaborative, interdisciplinary COVID-19 research to better understand the novel virus that has transformed health care globally. Each winner will receive $25,000 to support their research project thanks to funding by Icahn Mount Sinai.
The CURE-19 Research Pilot Projects will support new COVID-19 research over the next five years, with an emphasis on projects related to disease control for large communities, informatics and decision support systems, addressing structural racism and social determinants of health, translational science research, and evidence-based interventions and policies. The projects will also address the long-term effects of COVID-19, social and environmental determinants of COVID-19, and maternal and child health related to COVID-19.
“We are excited to fund the first cohort of research studies under the CURE-19 collaboration with NYC Health + Hospitals,” said Dennis S. Charney, MD, the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Icahn Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs of the Mount Sinai Health System. “The pandemic has disproportionately affected vulnerable populations. We must understand the systemic issues in order to address inequities in medicine and provide equitable care that improves health outcomes and enhances pandemic preparedness and response initiatives.”
“Elmhurst is thrilled to collaborate with our colleagues at Mount Sinai to further understand the relationship between COVID-19 and community, clinical, and socio-economic variables,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst CEO Helen Arteaga Landaverde, MPH. “We saw first-hand how terribly impacted our precious community was in the early days and weeks of the pandemic. However, that impact will have lasting effects for decades and generations to come. It is critical, as community health care providers, to thoroughly understand these impacts and better adapt our care and support services to those needs.”
“Congratulations to the four inaugural grant awardees of the CURE-19 Research Pilot Projects,” said NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens CEO Neil J. Moore, MBA, MPA, FACHE. “By partnering with our neighboring health institutions, our experts will be able to collect larger samples of information to draw stronger conclusions and correlations that will ultimately help address health needs in these communities, now and in the future.”
The inaugural research grant winners and their projects include:
- Environmental Impact on Outcomes: Saadiyah Bilal, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Icahn Mount Sinai, will examine the relationship between neighborhood-level community variables with clinical outcomes and vaccination rates for patients with COVID-19.
- Community Health Care Workers: Stanley Pierre, MD, MPA, Patient Safety Coordinator and Director of the Clinical Centers of Excellence Development Program, NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens, will examine how community health care workers can promote equity in vaccine access and trust to historically marginalized and vulnerable communities.
- Maternal COVID-19 Vaccination: Uday Patil, MD, Director of Neonatology and Newborn Services at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, and Global Health and Health Systems Design, at Icahn Mount Sinai, will examine the transfer of passive immunity against COVID-19 to newborns after vaccination of mothers in diverse, multiethnic communities that are often underserved and underrepresented.
- Opioid Overdose During Pandemic: Siri Shastry, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Icahn Mount Sinai, will examine the impact of COVID-19 on risk behaviors of patients with non-fatal opioid overdose in the Emergency Department, while understanding the influence of structural, community, and network factors.
The four inaugural research grant winners were required to submit a proposal that included a project summary or abstract, research description that emphasized its focus and significance, proposed timeline, list of principal and co-principal investigators, and more. The proposals were reviewed by a committee of research leaders from the CURE-19 partner institutions, who scored them on criteria including overall impact, significance, innovation, and approach.
The research pilot projects are part of a larger partnership known as the COVID-19 Unit for Research at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst and /Queens (CURE-19), a collaboration between Mount Sinai’s Arnhold Institute for Global Health and NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst Global Health Institute that formed during the initial peak of the pandemic in 2020. CURE-19 translates data, experiences, and lessons from clinicians at the Mount Sinai Health System, NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, and NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens into research to address both the global pandemic and root causes of health disparities in New York City.
About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan – all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 42,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NYCHealthSystem/ or Twitter at @NYCHealthSystem.
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.