By Dr. Alon Weizer
At Mount Sinai Medical Center, shaping the future of healthcare goes beyond delivering world-class clinical care—it includes a deep commitment to educating the next generation of physicians. That mission took a significant step forward this summer as the medical center welcomed its first cohort of medical students from New York Medical College (NYMC), marking the start of a new academic affiliation with New York Medical College, part of Touro University.
Through this partnership, Mount Sinai is now a designated teaching site for NYMC, offering third and fourth-year students clinical clerkships in internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and surgery, along with electives in high-demand specialties such as emergency medicine, anesthesiology, and urology.
These students are fully immersed in a high-acuity, high-volume teaching environment at the Miami Beach campus. They engage with a diverse patient population, collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, and gain hands-on experience that bridges academic learning with real-world clinical application.
As the largest private, independent, not-for-profit teaching hospital in Florida—and one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals™ for 2005 and 2024—Mount Sinai offers a dynamic setting for medical training. Its faculty is deeply committed to mentorship, and its infrastructure is designed to foster clinical excellence, academic rigor, and continuous innovation.
The medical center began training residents in 1953, making it one of the first statutory teaching hospitals in the state of Florida. As a statutory teaching hospital, Mount Sinai serves as its own sponsoring institution for graduate medical education programs—unlike other hospitals that rely on a university or medical school affiliation.
Today, the medical center trains more than 215 residents and fellows annually across 13 residency and fellowship programs. In addition, Mount Sinai hosts over 400 medical students each year from both local and national medical schools, drawn to the institution by its strong commitment to medical education.
This affiliation also plays a critical role in strengthening the physician pipeline in South Florida. By training students locally and introducing them early to the culture and standards of Mount Sinai, the medical center is helping to cultivate future residents—and potentially, future attending physicians—who are already familiar with the institution and its patient-centered mission.
More than a traditional academic agreement, the partnership between NYMC and Mount Sinai reflects a shared vision: to elevate the quality of medical education, expand access to meaningful clinical experiences, and prepare future physicians to lead with both skill and compassion.
Observing the transformation of these students as they move from learners to confident future clinicians underscores the impact of this initiative. Their growth serves as a powerful reminder of Mount Sinai’s role not only as a leader in patient care, but also as a vital force in shaping the future of medicine.
Dr. Alon Weizer is Chief Medical Officer at Mount Sinai Medical Center.
