CDC Awards Funding for Mount Sinai World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence
New contract provides eight years’ support for vital WTC-related health care for 9/11 workers and volunteers
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has awarded new funding for the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence at the Icahn School of Medicine’s Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health.
Under this new contract, which will fund up to $340 million over eight years, our WTC Health Program will continue to provide— at no cost—medical monitoring, treatment, and case management services for responders who participated in the rescue, recovery, debris clean-up, and related support services following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Our WTC Health Program, a component of the Mount Sinai Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health, is the largest such center in the country and proudly cares for more than 25,000 responders at its Manhattan, Staten Island, Suffern, and Yonkers, New York, locations.
“The ongoing support of the federal government ensures that we’re able to provide critically needed services to responders,” said Michael Crane, MD, MPH, Medical Director of the Selikoff Centers. “Decades after 9/11, we’re only beginning to understand the health effects related to exposure to the WTC disaster site. Thousands of responders have developed chronic physical and mental health conditions, and all of them require monitoring and dedicated, ongoing care. The terms of this contract underscore our WTC Health Program’s commitment to meet the expanding health care needs of our aging responder population, in areas including mental health, cancer care, and case management.”
Sandra M. Lowe, MD, Medical Director of the WTC Center’s Mental Health Program, added “Many responders who developed psychiatric conditions due to their work at the WTC disaster site continue to experience symptoms, adding to their overall health burden. This funding will allow us to continue to address the growing mental health care needs of our program’s brave responders.”
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.