GYN Oncologist Nimesh Nagarsheth, MD Marches to His Own Beat

The Mount Sinai Medical CenterOffice of DevelopmentOne Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1049New York, NY 10029-6574Non Profit Org.U.S. PostagePAIDS. Hackensack, NJPermit No. 897IN THIS ISSUE Mount Sinai Around the Globe + Vanquishing Disease + Welcoming an Iconoclast + Helping Hands in Haiti FALL 2011MOUNT SINAISCIENCE & MEDICINET H E M A G A Z I N E O F T H E M O U N T S I N A I M E D I C A L C E N T E RMount Sinai anesthesiologist Irene Osborn, MD greetsa young patient during a recent service trip to HaitiGLOBALIMPACTOur medical programs,research projects, andhealthcare outreach extendto every corner of the globePlease contact us by telephone (212.659.8500) or email (philanthropy@mountsinai.org) if you wish to have your name removed from our distribution list for fundraising materials.

AlAl ALUMNIALUMNIhe became chairman eight years ago. Under hisCaribbean. The Global Women’s Health Initiativeleadership, the department has gone from 10 to 45is fully integrated with the department’s residencyEqual to the TaskMichael Brodman, MD is a man on a mission: advancing women’s health.When asked if there’s any piece of sageadvice he likes to impart to the medicalstudents and residents in his charge,Michael Brodman MD ’82 leans back, purseshis lips, and considers the question. “Lookboth ways before crossing the street,” hesays finally, “and don’t text while driving.”Dr. Brodman laughs good-naturedly; trueto his down to earth style, he seems to findthe image of himself waxing philosophicalto be particularly funny.In fact, he laughs often during the courseof a conversation about the career pathpatients brought him to Mount Sinai,where he received his MD, completed his resi-dency, and has served on the faculty ever since.OVERCOMING INEQUALITYIN WOMEN’S HEALTHHis amiability disappears when Dr. Brodmantalks about the persistent inequities in howthe medical field treats men and women.He points to cardiovascular studiesas an example. “A lot of studies thatlook at heart disease and drug useare done mostly on men,” he says.full-time faculty members; added family planningand urogynecology services; significantly expandedservices in minimally invasive surgery, oncology,infertility, and both high-risk and generalistOB-GYN; and added a global health program.A PROGRAM AS BIG AS THE WORLDDr. Brodman harbors particularly large ambitionsfor the global health program. His interest inglobal health took hold when he was recruited bythe International Organization for Women andDevelopment to go on a surgical mission to Niger,where he performed surgical procedures on womenwho had developed complications during child-birth. The trip inspired him to create the department’sGlobal Women’s Health Initiative, whichgives residents in their third year the opportunity tospend a three-week rotation, taking part in a facultyledmedical mission in one of the initiative’s partnercountries in West Africa, Central America, and theprogram; this integration distinguishes it fromglobal health efforts at most other medical centers,which tend to consist of residents and physiciansundertaking their own individual trips to developingcountries with little institutional support.Dr. Brodman hopes to see the program adopted asa model for other academic medical centers. “Ourultimate goal is to have governing bodies of OB-GYNdepartments across the country recognize globalhealth as a positive educational program,” he says.It’s all part of his larger goal of promotingwomen’s health. “The medical community needs todo more to see that enough research and studies aredone on women so that we can actually determinehow women respond to different treatment andstrategies,” he says. “Most people who dole outresearch money are men, and that influences howthe money gets doled out. We need to effect aculture change in medicine to ensure that womenget treated as equals.” – Travis Adkins“We need to effecta culture change inmedicine to ensurethat women gettreated as equals.”– DR. MICHAEL BRODMANthat has brought him to his current role as“Women and men don’t respond tochairman of Mount Sinai’s Department oftreatments and drugs the same way;Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductivewomen have different symptomsScience, chuckling about the math classeswhen they have chest pain. So morehe once taught to freshmen engineers as agraduate student (“I had no idea what I waswomen have delayed diagnoses ofmyocardial infarction than men,Doc of Rocktalking about,” he says) and the hobbiesthat he enjoys (woodworking, cooking, andgolf, “though not necessarily in that order.”)A self-described “happy person,” he left acareer in bioelectrical engineering in largepart, he says, “because it was just too muchbeing in a lab and not enough spendingtime with people.” The desire to treat actualbecause women don’t have the samesymptoms, and all the symptomsthat everybody is tuned into aremale symptoms.”Giving women’s health equalfooting is Dr. Brodman’s vision forthe department he leads, whichhas grown dramatically sinceLEFT: Patients in Liberia—a country with only six OB-GYNsand a female mortality of 180 in 1,000 births—wait tosee physicians and caregivers from the Global Women’sHealth Initiative. The program sends residents andfaculty members from the Department of Obstetrics,Gynecology, and Reproductive Science and other MountSinai departments to countries such as Liberia, wherethey perform complicated surgical procedures and teachlocal healthcare providers essential knowledge such ashow to detect early warning signs during labor. RIGHT:Dr. Brodman, the chairman of the OB-GYN department,was inspired to create the program when he took asurgical mission to Niger.Nimesh P. Nagarsheth, MD ‘97 (center)marches to the beat of his own drum—literally.Dr. Nagarsheth—a gynecological oncologysurgeon and an assistant professor ofobstetrics, gynecology, and reproductivescience at Mount Sinai—plays drums, guitars,and keyboard for the rock band N.E.D. (NoEvidence of Disease), which creates andperforms music to raise awareness aboutgynecologic cancer. The band includes fiveother gynecological oncology surgeons fromAlaska, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Oregon.N.E.D. has released two albums so far (NoEvidence of Disease and their second album, SixDegrees) and will be featured in a forthcomingdocumentary. “Music reflects life,” says Dr.Nagarsheth, who is also the author of Musicand Cancer: A Prescription for Healing. “There’sa lot we can learn through music about thehealing process.” For more information, visittheir Web site: www.nedtheband.com3839