Overview

The Division of Newborn Medicine, under the direction of Dr. Ian R. Holzman, consists of six faculty members located at The Mount Sinai Hospital, four faculty members located at Elmhurst Hospital Center, and one faculty member at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey. Fellows at various stages of training also provide clinical care at two of the centers. The Division has close ties to the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science, which allows for improved clinical care and research cooperation on a number of projects.

There is a strong clinical and basic science research program in a number of areas relating to the newborn. Members of the division have had a long-standing interest in the etiology of necrotizing enterocolitis with a special focus on the role of small chain fatty acids in this disease. There are also on-going research projects looking at the maturation of electrolyte channels in the developing kidney, the therapy of transient tachypnea of the newborn, the developmental effects of exposure to endocrine disruptors while infants are in the neonatal intensive care unit, the use of ultrasound to diagnose lung problems in newborns, and the epidemiology of fetal-maternal hemorrhages. There is also a strong emphasis on bioethics scholarship and teaching in the division.

The Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder Newborn Intensive Care Unit is the focus of clinical activities for the Division of Newborn Medicine. The NICU is a state-of-the-art 35-bed unit with over 800 admissions a year, including 75 transports from other hospitals utilizing our own transport system. Patients have a wide range of medical and surgical problems with many requiring the input of a wide array of disciplines. . There is a special emphasis on the management of infants with inborn errors of metabolism, liver diseases (including pre-transplant management), short gut syndrome and intestinal transplant, congenital heart disease and dialysis. The NICU philosophy is for family-centered care with two full time social workers, rehabilitation specialists and developmental pediatricians. The intensive care unit has private areas devoted to breast feeding and milk storage and a "nesting" room where families may spend a night with their infant prior to discharge. This arrangement allows parents to adjust to caring for their child and allows the staff to observe parenting skills.