Mount Sinai’s Department of Neurosurgery is committed to building an inclusive and innovative environment. We want all our faculty, trainees, and staff to feel valued, supported, and able to reach their full potential. This will help us provide equitable and inclusive care for all our patients.
We are proud that our efforts are connected with the Mount Sinai Health System’s. The health system has received many awards for diversity and inclusion. It is ranked No. 1 in health care diversity by Forbes and DiversityInc. In addition, for the fourth year in a row, the Icahn School of Medicine has been recognized for its outstanding efforts in diversity and inclusion. We believe our department plays a critical role in the promotion and support of all people, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religious beliefs.
Anti-Racism and Anti-Discrimination Statement
The Department of Neurosurgery acknowledges that racism is a threat to the health and well-being of our patients and profession.
Across the Mount Sinai Health System and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, we commit to:
- Acknowledging that racism is a public health crisis, and identifying areas of disparate care within each of our hospitals
- Assisting in creating an anti-racist health system that provides equal access and delivers equitable care to our patients
- Committing to identifying and dismantling policies and practices that result in disparate clinical outcomes by race and ethnicity
- Delivering equitable care to all patients by including, listening, and applying the wisdom and experience from the communities we serve
- Educating ourselves and our colleagues on racism and bias about gender identity, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs in order to counter the racism and discrimination that has thwarted the progress of medicine
- Increasing representation of women, Black, Indigenous, people of color, Latinx, and other minorities among our neurosurgery faculty, trainee and leadership ranks and actively work to advance their careers
- Listening and committing to continuous self-improvement and introspection, accepting feedback from all, while understanding that the work starts from within
- Promoting an environment for all providers and staff to practice medicine with dignity and mutual respect
The Department of Neurosurgery engages in several long-term activities focused on our internal culture. Department members actively participate in both institutional, national, and international diversity efforts. They work with leadership, faculty, house staff, medical students, and other staff at all sites throughout the health system to promote diversity and inclusion. Our department is the first in the nation to track the track the numbers of Underrepresented in Medicine (URiM) in neurosurgery throughout the country, providing the first national benchmarks. While we still have much work to do, since the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Vice Chair position was created within the health system in 2020, our number of women residents has doubled; currently, 29 percent of our residents are women, compared to 18 percent nationally. Similarly, 14 percent of our trainees are URiM, significantly more than the national average of 9 percent.
We collaborate with the Center for Excellence in Youth Education and other national organization to foster and mentor a pipeline of URiM high school students and introduce them to medicine and neurosurgery. We invest significantly in a visiting electives program for URiM students. These initiatives have enabled the department to expand the number of URiM trainees. Once URiM medical students join our residency program, we provide robust and thoughtful mentorship and professional networking to support them throughout their training.
Finally, we are committed to training our current faculty, residents, and staff to foster an open and welcoming environment. We work with the nonprofit organization People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond to bring the continuing medical education-accredited Undoing Racism Workshop to our hospital campuses. We encourage our department members to participate in on-line unconscious bias training sessions to further each member’s of their own hidden prejudices. We constantly work to improve our communications and ensure that we remain a culturally sensitive and patient-centric department.