By Josh Borgerding (entering class of 2014)
Mount Sinai has long been a place to set imagination free. Before the medical school was founded in 1968, Sinai received more NIH funding than any other freestanding hospital in the country. The increasing molecularization of medicine after WWII , however, pushed Sinai to move beyond its singular roots. In response, the physicians at Mount Sinai planned a school of medicine. Medical and Graduate education would invigorate the hospital and aid in the improvement of medicine.
The Mount Sinai medical school would be different than any other premier school in the country. It would be structured with humanism and interdisciplinarity at the core. Even as the first classes were admitted in the late 60s/early 70s, Sinai was seen as a place for the rebel. Sinai students were risk takers, yearning to engage with both knowledge and their communities.
A philosophy was developed at the founding of the school in order to cultivate a different kind of student. Hans Popper, a renowned hepatologist and prime mover in the school’s foundation, likened the new Sinai medical education to a tripod. One leg would be biology applied to medical problems. The second leg would be built by engagement with the community. The third leg would be the promotion of interdisciplinarity. Atop these legs Sinai would flourish.
“The Mount Sinai Concept” as it was called has continued to guide medical and graduate education. In his talk at the annual MSTP retreat in September, Medical School Dean Dennis Charney described a similar three legged stool. While the medical and graduate schools form two legs, the MD/PhD program forms a leg on its own. As the MSTP comes under new leadership, a focus on the distinctness of the MD/PhD track will be strengthened. This focus will come with curricular changes. “My very strong feeling is that it’s absurd for 1st year MD-PhD students to take both the regular medical school curriculum plus the regular grad school cores,” said interim MSTP director Eric Nestler. “It’s double the work and highly redundant.” Instead, MSTP specific courses will supplement the medical curriculum. These courses, some already being taught for first year students, are designed to teach students to become physician scientists. Increased flexibility will also be added to the course. Program leadership is looking to develop and promote alternative timelines different from the 2+4+2 curriculum (2 years preclinical, 4 years PhD, 2 years clinical), and ideas have ranged from shortening the PhD phase (but maintaining the quality of research!) to starting the PhD phase after the third year of medical school (3+4+1). This flexibility will allow for a uniquely personalized experience for Sinai students.
It is an exciting time to be a Sinai MSTP student. In the face of new leadership and an evolving curriculum, students are providing valuable insight and changes that will best serve their career goals. At its inception, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (now Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) was an experiment – the first American medical school to be opened without a university since 1910. The exceptional students and faculty have made it successful and will guide the MSTP into a new and exciting era.