Geriatrics, or geriatric medicine, is a medical specialty focused on providing care for the unique health needs of the elderly. The term geriatrics originates from the Greek γέρων geron meaning "old man", and ιατρός iatros meaning "healer". It aims to promote health by preventing, diagnosing and treating disease in older adults. There is no defined age at which patients may be under the care of a geriatrician, or geriatric physician, a physician who specializes in the care of older people. Rather, this decision is guided by individual patient need and the caregiving structures available to them. This care may benefit those who are managing multiple chronic conditions or experiencing significant age-related complications that threaten quality of daily life. Geriatric care may be indicated if caregiving responsibilities become increasingly stressful or medically complex for family and caregivers to manage independently.
Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is one of the oldest and largest teaching hospitals in the United States. It is located in East Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan, on the eastern border of Central Park stretching along Madison and Fifth Avenues, between East 98th Street and East 103rd Street. The entire Mount Sinai health system has over 7,400 physicians, as well as 3,919 beds, and delivers over 16,000 babies a year.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City, New York, United States. The school is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eight hospital campuses in the New York metropolitan area, including Mount Sinai Hospital and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.
Christine K. Cassel is a leading expert in geriatric medicine, medical ethics and quality of care. She is planning dean of the new Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine. Until March 2016, she was president and CEO of the National Quality Forum. Previously, Cassel served as president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine and the ABIM Foundation.
Ignatz Leo Nascher was an Austrian-American medical doctor and gerontologist. He coined the term "geriatrics" in 1909.
Kenneth L. Davis is the executive vice chairperson of the board of trustees at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, and an American author and medical researcher who developed the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale, the most widely used tool to test the efficacy of treatments for Alzheimer's disease designed specifically to evaluate the severity of cognitive and noncognitive behavioral dysfunctions characteristic to persons with Alzheimer's disease. His research led to four of the first five FDA-approved drugs for Alzheimer's.
The Mount Sinai Health System is the largest hospital network in New York City. It was formed in September 2013 by merging the operations of Continuum Health Partners and the Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Albert Siu is a Cuban American internist and geriatrician and the Ellen and Howard C. Katz Chairman and Professor of the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He is also the director of the Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in The Bronx, a senior associate editor of Health Services Research, a senior fellow of the Brookdale Foundation and a former trustee of the Nathan Cummings Foundation.
David Muller is a physician who in 1996 co-founded the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program (VDP), a program of Mount Sinai Medical Center's Departments of Medicine and Geriatrics. He is Dean for Medical Education and the Marietta and Charles C. Morchand Chair in Medical Education at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City and Associate Professor of both Medicine and Medical Education.
Diane E. Meier, an American geriatrician and palliative care specialist. In 1999, Dr. Meier founded the Center to Advance Palliative Care, a national organization devoted to increasing access to quality health care in the United States for people living with serious illness. She continues to serve as CAPC's Director Emerita and Strategic Medical Advisor. Meier is also Vice-Chair for Public Policy, Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine and Catherine Gaisman Professor of Medical Ethics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Meier was founder and Director of the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York City from 1997 to 2011.
Robert J. Desnick is an American human geneticist whose basic and translational research accomplishments include significant discoveries in genomics, pharmacogenetics, gene therapy, personalized medicine, and the treatment of genetic diseases. His translational research has led to the development of the enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) and the chaperone therapy for Fabry disease, ERT for Niemann–Pick disease type B, and the RNA Interference Therapy for the Acute Hepatic Porphyrias.
The Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai conducts research studies and provides care to children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The Seaver Autism Center works to understand the biological causes of ASD and to develop treatments, as well as provide education and training opportunities.
Michael J. Bronson is an American orthopaedic surgeon who is Chairman of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside, and Chief of Joint Replacement Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, and the author of advances in the development of minimally invasive surgical instruments to advance unicondylar partial knee replacement, including the Vision Total Hip System, a widely used hip replacement system that avoids the use of cement.
Scott L. Friedman is an American scientist, professor and physician who works in the field of hepatology. Friedman has conducted pioneering research into the underlying causes of scarring, or fibrosis, associated with chronic liver disease, by characterizing the key fibrogenic cell type, the hepatic stellate cell His laboratory has also discovered a novel tumor suppressor gene, KLF6 that is inactivated in a number of human cancers including primary liver cancer. Friedman is the Fishberg Professor of Medicine, and Chief of the Division of Liver Diseases, Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Friedman has two children, a son, Leor Friedman, and a daughter, Yael Friedman.
The John A. Hartford Foundation is a private United States–based philanthropy whose current mission is to improve the care of older adults. For many years, it made grants for research and education in geriatric medicine, nursing and social work. It now focuses on three priority areas: creating age-friendly health systems, supporting family caregivers and improving serious illness, and end-of-life care.
Horace Louis Hodes was an American pediatrician and infectious disease researcher. He was the first to isolate rotavirus, he demonstrated that the Japanese encephalitis virus is transmitted by mosquitoes, and he discovered that vitamin D increases intestinal absorption of calcium. He spent his early career at Johns Hopkins Hospital and later became the chief of pediatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Ivonne Z. Jiménez Velázquez is a Puerto Rican geriatrician and internist. She is a professor and chair of the department of medicine at University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine.
Jason C. Kovacic is an Australian-born cardiologist and physician-scientist; the Robert Graham Chair and Professor of Medicine, University of New South Wales; Executive Director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney, Australia; and Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York.
Roxana Mehran is an Iranian-American cardiologist and Mount Sinai Endowed Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is known for her work in interventional cardiology.
Amy S. Kelley is an American geriatrician and palliative care specialist serving as the deputy director of the National Institute on Aging since 2022. She was previously the Hermann Merkin Professor in Palliative Care at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
