Westchester's New York Medical College Awarded $3.2M In Federal Funds

Press release from Touro College & University System:

Feb. 23, 2023

Community service and innovation are hallmarks of the education and experience at Touro University and with the help of Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and other Congressional leaders, future doctors and scientists will now have expanded opportunities to develop their capacity to serve society.

More than $3.2 million in federal funding was awarded for exciting projects at New York Medical College, a member of Touro University. This grant was included in the federal omnibus spending package for 2023.

Touro’s New York Medical College received two grants--$1.9 million to expand existing clinical skills and disaster medicine facilities and create the Equity and Compassion in Medical Education Through Advanced Real-Time Simulations project and $825,000 to support the Women’s Institute for Science Entrepreneurship.

“The support from Congress for education and training of medical students and others in healthcare and disaster medicine is invaluable, especially the science mentorship program for women" said Alan Kadish, M.D., president of New York Medical College and Touro University. "We particularly want to thank Senator Charles Schumer, Congressman Mondaire Jones and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand for their support."

Training Doctors for Modern Times --Equity and Compassion in Medical Education

Every patient wants to see a physician with an empathetic bedside manner who understands his or her life challenges, not just his medical condition. The Equity and Compassion in Medical Education project will train medical professionals to provide compassionate care by challenging them with demanding real-time health care scenarios.

With the funding secured through this grant, the highly specialized health care training facility at New York Medical College will be expanded to provide students and residents with patient encounters designed to teach and test their ability to recognize patients’ issues that go deeper than the health problems they report. Ethnically diverse mock patients, portrayed by professional actors or hi-fidelity mannequins, may initially conceal food insecurity, unemployment, or disordered personal relationships, all of which students will learn to probe and investigate with the same intensity as they would direct to chest pain or impending labor.

Simulations of community-wide emergencies, such as mass transit accidents, active shooter events or pandemics, will intensify the level of preparedness, situational awareness, and rapid responsiveness required of every health care professional in modern times.

“This recognition by the U.S. Congress ennobles our 162-year-old institution and advances its historic mission,” said Robert W. Amler, M.D., vice president for government affairs and dean of the School of Health Sciences and Practice and Institute of Public Health. “These innovative educational approaches will instill new reality-based skills in future healthcare professionals for many years to come and will bring new vitality to the growing ranks of women as science entrepreneurs.”

Advancing the Role of Women in Science Entrepreneurship

The Women’s Institute for Science Entrepreneurship (WISE) is a transformative program that will allow women to cultivate new scientific concepts and launch new businesses, create a multidisciplinary entrepreneurship educational opportunity for students and launch careers for alumni who will make significant differences to their communities and the world.

WISE draws upon educators and students from Touro University, New York Medical College (NYMC) and BioInc@NYMC, the award-winning biotechnology incubator for local entrepreneurs and start-up biotech firms, located on the NYMC campus. The program will support women student innovators and entrepreneurs to pursue their STEM education and research, with the goal of transforming ideas into reality.

“We are grateful to the U.S. Congress for supporting our mission of empowering women in science and encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit,” said Marina K. Holz, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, professor of cell biology and anatomy, director of the Integrated Ph.D. Program, interim chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, who will serve as director of WISE. “Interventions that create a path for women in science to become business leaders are most effective when introduced early in their educational and professional careers, and this program will robustly promote this goal.”

This press release was produced by Touro College & University System. The views expressed here are the author's own.