The World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program General Responder
Data Center (GRDC) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is charged
with the data capture, management, analyses and public health surveillance for
the WTC Health Program General Responders. The GRDC fulfills these
responsibilities using the physical and mental health, exposure, occupational
and socioeconomic data generated by the five WTC Health Program General
Responder Clinical Centers of Excellence in the NYC metropolitan area and by the
Nationwide Provider Network.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has cared for 9/11
responders since the responders first started presenting at the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health, and added initial screening when funding began early
in 2002. The WTC Health Program (whose current title evolved in 2011 with the enactment
of the Zadroga Act) consists of the GRDC, five Clinical Centers of Excellence
(CCEs) (the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; New York University at
Bellevue Hospital; Northwell Health; Rutgers University; and the State
University of New York, Stony Brook) and the Nationwide Provider Network (NPN).
Together, these entities establish medical protocols that monitor the health of
9/11 workers and volunteers and provide medical care and treatment
for them.
The GRDC manages, curates, cleans, analyzes and, of those members
who consented, shares with researchers the data collected by the CCEs and NPN at
each WTC Health Program member’s health examinations. The GRDC maintains and
protects health information and medical records for all general responders (i.e.,
non-FDNY) in both the New York metropolitan area and the NPN, and currently is
also providing the opportunity to consent for research to the general
responders enrolled in the NPN.
Within the GRDC, staff members include programmers, analysts,
epidemiologists, biostatisticians and physicians who also work with researchers
to generate relevant research questions about 9/11 health consequences, prepare
data sets to assist in answering these questions, and consult and advise on
data analysis, interpretation and publication.
Using these data, the GRDC has published numerous, peer-reviewed
clinical, statistical and epidemiological studies. These publications inform
physicians, public health officials and policy makers worldwide of health
consequences stemming from exposures during and after the 9/11 attacks.
Our faculty and staff at Icahn Mount Sinai have
become profoundly aware of the physical and mental health problems that
confront many of the 9/11 responders. We are proud and honored to do our work
on behalf of the 9/11 responders who gave so much to us on and after September
11th, 2001.