A Message From Leesa Galatz, MD

Looking back on 2022, I can say it was a year of tremendous achievement for the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. These achievements happened through the hard work of physicians and staff, and with cooperation from many leaders within the Mount Sinai Health System. Among our many accomplishments, U.S. News & World Report ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital No. 8 nationally for Orthopedics for 2022-2023, and Newsweek ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital among the top 25 orthopedic programs in the world. Additionally, the hospital earned status as a Center of Excellence for Joint Replacement by The Joint Commission.

Last year saw the opening of the Spine Center, a new multidisciplinary center associated with
Mount Sinai West that provides surgical and nonsurgical treatments for the spine. Spine Center physicians have expertise in orthopedics, neurosurgery, and physiatry, a combination that provides patients with a broad range of spine care in one location. We were also excited to celebrate Mount Sinai’s 10th year as the official medical services provider to the US Open Tennis Championships, where our elite sports medicine team tended to some of the world’s top professional athletes in Queens, New York.

Additionally, the Orthopedic Research Laboratories welcomed two new faculty members in 2022. Along with their recruitment, the lab received four new R01 grants funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as three diversity supplements from the NIH. We had a large number of faculty recognized as top physicians by Castle Connolly: three recognized as Exceptional Women in Medicine, two of which received the Exceptional Women in Sports Medicine award. The Arthritis Foundation and the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center recognized two of our faculty members for service and dedication to patients with musculoskeletal disease. While we celebrate these individual awards, I am proud of the hard work we all do on a daily basis to further our clinical, research, and educational missions.

As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is refreshing to put the pandemic’s worst days behind us and look to the future. We look forward to welcoming several new recruits in 2023, and to continuing to grow, both in Manhattan and in the outer boroughs. We plan to expand our outpatient surgery platform and will soon welcome a state-of-the-art Center for Surgical Innovation, which will be located in a new facility in Midtown Manhattan, near Mount Sinai West. Our surgeons will continue to push boundaries in the interests of our patients as we deliver the best possible care in the New York City region.

I am proud U.S. News & World Report ranked The Mount Sinai Hospital No. 8 nationally for Orthopedics for 2022-2023. I hope you will consider supporting us again in the new year.

I hope this message finds you well, and that you will follow us on our channels for updates on our progress.