The Jack Martin Fund (JMF) has built on its partnership with the Mount Sinai Health System to provide cutting-edge care and support to children with cancer through a new $3.5 million gift to The Mount Sinai Hospital to establish the Jack Martin Fund Child and Adolescent Imaging Center at Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital.
The future 2,400-square-foot facility represents a major investment in advancing children's cancer care through pediatric radiology, and will also provide the critical infrastructure to enhance and support the Mount Sinai Children's Brain and Spinal Tumor Center for advanced research.
"The Jack Martin Fund's outstanding generosity over the years has enabled us to provide outstanding care, including diagnosis, treatment, and support to some of our sickest children and their families," says Lisa M. Satlin, MD, the Herbert H. Lehman Professor of Pediatrics and Chair of the Jack and Lucy Clark Department of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Pediatrician-in-Chief of Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital. "The Jack Martin Fund Child and Adolescent Imaging Center will help transform the way we care for children with cancer by providing imaging that is critical for diagnosis and treatment. And by opening the door to new treatments and discoveries, the Center will increase the number of clinical trials we're able to offer these young patients."
The Jack Martin Fund Child and Adolescent Imaging Center will be located on the first floor of Kravis Children's Hospital in Manhattan, which has been ranked among the country's top children's hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for 2022-2023. The Center will be designed for optimal comfort of children and families, with dedicated suites for MRI, ultrasound, fluoroscopy, and CT that ensure significantly reduced radiation exposure. Other child and family-friendly features will include a warm and welcoming interactive waiting area, a bright, cheerful reading room, and proximity to the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Program with its exceptional Paws and Play program. This initiative will provide therapy dogs to escort children into the new Center, and stay with them until their testing begins.
"Kravis Children's Hospital is in the midst of a rapid period of growth through investments in people, technology, and new clinical and surgical units designed to change the child-family experience," says Fernando Ferrer, MD, FACS, Chief Operating Officer of Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital. "The Jack Martin Fund Child and Adolescent Imaging Center is an integral part of our improvement and expansion plans."
The Jack Martin Fund has been supporting Mount Sinai for more than 70 years, with its first pledge to Pediatric Oncology occurring in 1998. Since then, it has helped establish the JMF Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, the Blau Center for Children's Cancer and Blood Disease, and the acclaimed JMF Children's Cancer Unit at Kravis Children's Hospital.
"We're extremely proud of the more than $40 million in support we've provided to Mount Sinai over the years, helping the hospital to become one of the nation's most recognized providers of innovative and compassionate care for children with cancer," says Mark Zeller and Chris Mongeluzo, co-presidents and board members of the Jack Martin Fund, which has been under the visionary leadership of Chairman Alan Feldman since the mid-1980s.
Some 20 years ago, Mr. Feldman joined with Mount Sinai leaders to make pediatric oncology and hematology their clinical imperative. The Jack Martin Fund Child and Adolescent Imaging Center is the latest outgrowth of that collaboration.
"The Center will provide the most advanced technology and equipment to treat children in a safe, calming, and timely way," says Oren Becher, MD, Chief of the Jack Martin Fund Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital.
"That cutting-edge imaging capability will allow us to advance our evaluation and diagnosis of a wide range of pediatric illnesses which our specialists are highly skilled at treating," emphasizes Margaret Pastuszko, MBA, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System.
Just as importantly, the new radiology center will support the newly formed Children's Brain and Spinal Tumor Center, which leverages the hospital's unique strengths in pediatric brain and spinal tumor research. The additional resource is seen as helping Mount Sinai promote innovative clinical trials, improve outcomes for children, and minimize toxicities of current cancer therapies. "Mount Sinai already has one of the largest pediatric brain-tumor-specific research footprints in New York City," says Dr. Becher, "as well as the expertise to become the premier destination for pediatric brain and spinal tumors nationwide."
About the Jack Martin Fund
The Jack Martin Fund, now marking its 72nd Anniversary, is one of the most remarkable stories of volunteer support of medical care, research and education. In terms of outright generosity, faith in the promise of research to prevent and treat life-threatening diseases and commitment to one institution, the fund has few equals. Since its inception in 1950, the Fund has contributed more than $40 million to Mount Sinai to further progress in human health through education, research and technology.
