Mount Sinai School of Medicine

MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL of Medicine (MSSM) is a medical school located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The official name is Mount Sinai School of Medicine of New York University because of its academic affiliation with New York University (NYU). However, MSSM is independent of NYU; that is, MSSM has its own facilities, [Page 354]board of trustees, administration, student body, faculty, admissions offices, tuition fees, and endowment. MSSM also raises its own funds. MSSM and the Mount Sinai Hospital occupy a four—block area adjacent to Central Park in the community of Carnegie Hill. MSSM and Mount Sinai Hospital make up the Mount Sinai Medical Center. Mount Sinai Hospital was established in 1852 as the Jews' Hospital in the City of New York, but another century would pass before a school of medicine was created. Over the years, Mount Sinai Hospital built a well—earned reputation for the excellence of its patient care and clinical research programs. The laboratories and wards of Mount Sinai Hospital became a mecca for trainees interested in pathophysiology and basic science research.

In the late 1950s, Mount Sinai Hospital was ranked number 27 in the United States among institutions receiving National Institute of Health funds, an exceptional achievement for a hospital with little academic affiliation. Schools and colleges of medicine from Columbia University to NYU to Cornell University have sought the opportunity to use Mount Sinai Hospital as one of their primary teaching sites. For Mount Sinai Hospital to maintain its leadership position in the areas of clinical medicine and basic science research, it was decided that it would create the first, solely hospital—based medical school in the United States.

MSSM was chartered in 1963; in 1968, Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York (CUNY) commenced its first class of future physicians. MSSM quickly became one of the leading medical schools in the United States, with Mount Sinai Hospital gaining international recognition for advances in patient care and the discovery of disease. After an extensive search and analysis, and after some setbacks, on January 1, 1998, NYU's hospital facilities were initially spun off as a separate, nonprofit organization and subsequently were joined with Mount Sinai Hospital to form Mount Sinai—NYU Health, an umbrella organization that joined the two hospitals. Throughout this process, the New York University School of Medicine continued to be a part of NYU; in 1999, with the approval of the board of regents of the University of the State of New York, MSSM, itself a separate nonprofit organization, changed its academic affiliation from CUNY to NYU. The merger between the NYU Medical Center and the Mount Sinai Medical Center and their facilities has since been dissolved, though MSSM's academic affiliation with NYU remains.

According to U.S. News & World Report, among medical schools, MSSM is currently ranked number 27 in the United States in medical research and number two in the United States in geriatrics. MSSM is also ranked number 20 in the United States among medical schools receiving National Institutes of Health grants.

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