New York, NY (7/28/2021) – With generous support from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai announced today a three-year project to replicate its model for dismantling systemic racism in medical education. The school has put forth a Request for Proposal (RFP) seeking eight to ten partner medical schools in the United States and Canada who will participate in the Icahn Mount Sinai learning model, centered on a virtual learning platform.
The platform will engage students, staff, and faculty in virtual experiential learning, assessments, outcome and performance monitoring sessions, and coaching to achieve systemic and adaptive change that leads to cultural transformation.
Applications for the Anti-Racist Transformation (ART) in Medical Education are due on August 16, 2021.
“While racism permeates clinical practice and biomedical research, the shadow that it casts on medical education is even more profound and egregious; it is through medical education that racism and bias are perpetuated across multiple generations,” says David Muller, MD, FACP, Dean for Medical Education, Icahn Mount Sinai, and a principal investigator of the project. “We developed our model on the belief that racism can only be mitigated through a formal change management process that it is life-long and requires vigilance and openness to course correction.”
Under the direction of Dr. Muller and Leona Hess, PhD, MSW, Senior Director of Strategy and Equity Education Program, Icahn Mount Sinai, and with co-investigator, Jennifer Dias, a rising third-year medical student, this partnership with other medical schools will establish a community of practice that facilitates shared learning on how to deconstruct racism and bias.
“Practice is a fundamental element of transformation. To transform, we must reexamine and make changes to central aspects of Medical Education,” Dr. Hess says. “This will require us to re-envision how we perform job functions and learn in and from our environment. We knew we needed to design programs that develop capacities on the individual and the institutional levels that foster a welcoming and creative community so we can learn from each other and our collective practice.”
The model reflects the field of change management and literature on social change. The change-management strategy will leverage components of Icahn Mount Sinai’s Racism and Bias Initiative (RBI), which is unique in its focus on change that is continuous and evolving, not an isolated event or action. “Our approach is not a top-down, step-by-step, linear process. It is constantly self-correcting and requires that we remain open to change and self-reflection,” says Dr. Muller.
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About the Mount Sinai Health System
The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City’s largest academic medical system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai is a national and international source of unrivaled education, translational research and discovery, and collaborative clinical leadership ensuring that we deliver the highest quality care—from prevention to treatment of the most serious and complex human diseases. The Health System includes more than 7,200 physicians and features a robust and continually expanding network of multispecialty services, including more than 400 ambulatory practice locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 14 on U.S. News & World Report’s “Honor Roll” of the Top 20 Best Hospitals in the country and the Icahn School of Medicine as one of the Top 20 Best Medical Schools in country. Mount Sinai Health System hospitals are consistently ranked regionally by specialty and our physicians in the top 1% of all physicians nationally by U.S. News & World Report.
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