Mission Statement

The Department of Community and Preventive Medicine was established in 1967 at the time of founding Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The Department is a nationally and internationally recognized center of excellence in preventive medicine, occupational and environmental medicine, community health, and environmental pediatrics. It is among the largest medical school departments of preventive medicine in the United States. The Department has worked closely with WHO on issues pertaining to children's environmental health.

The Department's mission is to prevent disease, protect the environment and promote good health in East Harlem and in all the communities that Mount Sinai serves.

The Department consists of 57 full-time faculty, 137 adjunct and voluntary faculty, and 265 staff. The Department's overall budget in FY 2008 is $35.8 million. The Department's portfolio of peer-reviewed extramural grants and contracts from the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and private foundations totals $50.7M. The Department ranks third in total extramural research funding among all departments at Mount Sinai.

Leadership

The first Chairman of Mount Sinai's Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, George James, M.D., former Commissioner of Health of the City of New York, was also the founding Dean of Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. James was an internationally recognized pioneer in urban public health.

Kurt W. Deuschle, M.D., known widely as "The Father of Community Medicine", succeeded Dr. James as chairman in 1968. Dr. Deuschle served as Chairman for 22 years until 1990, and he established the Department as a preeminent center of scholarship in urban community health. Dr. Deuschle is remembered for his deep commitment to partnership with Mount Sinai's neighbor community of East Harlem; for having expanded the scope of community medicine to include anthropology, the social sciences and environmental studies; and for having trained a generation of leaders in American public health.

Irving J. Selikoff, M.D., served as Director of the Department's Environmental Sciences Laboratory from 1960 to 1985. Dr. Selikoff is considered the "Father of Occupational Medicine in the United States". He was responsible for creating the Environmental Sciences Laboratory, an internationally recognized center of excellence in occupational and environmental medicine at Mount Sinai. He is remembered for his seminal research on the diseases of asbestos, his tireless advocacy for the health of workers and his key role in creation of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Occupational safety and Health Administration. He was co-founder and first president of the Collegium Ramazzini.

Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., M.S.c., the current Chairman has served since 1990. Dr. Landrigan is a pediatrician and epidemiologist who served previously at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National institute fro Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Dr. Landrigan is a member of the Institute of Medicine. He is President of the Collegium Ramazzini.

Dr Landrigan is a national and international leader in public health and in occupational and environmental medicine. In the early 1970's, he participated in CDC's Global Smallpox Eradication Campaign, and did extended overseas tours of duty in El Salvador and northern Nigeria. In the 1970's and 1980's, Dr. Landrigan and his research team at CDC played a key role in generating data on the toxicity of lead at low levels that persuaded EPA to remove lead from gasoline, an action that brought about a 90 percent reduction in incidence of lead poisoning among US children. In the 1980's and 1990's, he chaired committees at the National Academy of Sciences, most notably the Committee on Environmental Neurotoxicology and the Committee on Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children. The report of the Committee on Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children created the intellectual basis for far-reaching reform of federal pesticide law and was instrumental in passage of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, the first federal environmental law to contain explicit provisions for protecting children's health. In 1997, under the guidance of EPA Administrator Carol Browner, Dr Landrigan helped create the Office of Children's Health Protection at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He was an architect of the National Children's Study.

At Mount Sinai, Dr. Landrigan has strengthened the research base, training programs and clinical services in environmental, occupational and preventive medicine. He was the principal architect of New York's unique statewide network of Clinical Centers of Excellence in Occupational Medicine. He oversaw creation of the Mount Sinai IJ Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine. He guided development of the World Trade Center Medical Programs that Mount Sinai established after September 11, 2001 to care for the men and women who responded to the 9/11 attacks. He led development of the Mount Sinai Children's Environmental Health Center. He serves as Principal Investigator for the National Children's Study in New York and northern New Jersey.

Departmental Structure

The Department is highly interdisciplinary and undertakes research in preventive medicine, public health, epidemiology, environmental and occupational medicine and the social sciences; it educates medical students, MPH students, residents and fellows; it provides clinical services to workers exposed to occupational hazards, to workers and volunteers from the World Trade Center disaster, and to children exposed to environmental toxins; it provides a wide array of preventive services in East Harlem and in other communities that Mount Sinai serves. The Department enjoys a national and international reputation for excellence.

The Department contains ten Divisions: Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Data Management, Environmental Health Science, Preventive Medicine, International Health, Family Medicine, Social and Behavioral Science, Health Care Management and Practice, the Thomas C. Chalmers Clinical Trials Unit, and the IJ Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The Department's Education Unit is responsible for training medical students, for residency programs in general preventive medicine and in occupational and environmental medicine, for a recently established fellowship program in environmental pediatrics, and for the Medical School's MPH degree program.