The Milton and Caroll Petrie Department of Urology at Mount Sinai has received a $3.8 million donation from philanthropist Robert F. Smith to launch the Robert F. Smith Mobile MRI Unit in partnership with the Mount Sinai Health System to support prostate health in the Black community.
According to the American Cancer Society, one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, making it the most common cancer among men other than skin cancer. However, in the Black community the number is much higher—Black Americans are more than twice as likely to die from the disease.
"I am extremely grateful to Robert F. Smith for his very generous gift and for becoming my partner in this mission to help detect prostate cancer early and provide a life-saving screening tool for so many Black men," says Ash Tewari, MBBS, MCh, Chair of Urology at the Mount Sinai Health System and the Kyung Hyun Kim, MD Professor of Urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "The idea for the Robert F. Smith Mobile MRI Unit was in response to a major health problem—the higher incidence and mortality of prostate cancer in Black men, which I not only identified in my own practice and research, but across the country. Reasons for this include access to health care, the environment, comorbidities and even specific molecular pathways in the body for Black men."
The Robert F. Smith Mobile MRI Unit will address the high incidence of prostate cancer in the Black community by:
- Joining forces with local community partners in New York City to raise awareness about the disease and services being offered by the mobile unit.
- Setting up prostate screening appointments at the mobile magnetic resonance imaging unit in highly concentrated Black neighborhoods across New York City.
- Scheduling follow-up visits as needed for patients with Mount Sinai Health System urologists.
"This past year has laid bare many of the economic and social inequities that continue to plague communities of color," said Mr. Smith, founder, chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. "It's unconscionable that in our great country and at this moment of technological breakthrough, Black Americans are still subject to staggeringly worse health outcomes. We can fix this. I'm grateful to Mount Sinai for being a standout in providing world-class care to all patients, and I'm honored to help their team serve New York City's communities with early detection and a path to curative treatments."
The Robert F. Smith Mobile MRI Unit is expected to launch in New York City at the end of the summer.
The Department of Urology at the Mount Sinai Health System has one of the most robust robotic surgery programs in the country, with Dr. Tewari having performed more than 7,000 surgeries. Genomic testing and advanced imaging are routine for patients with prostate cancer, providing personalized and precise treatment protocols. Dr. Tewari and his team have performed thousands of MRI-guided fusion biopsies, have a very large cohort of active surveillance patients, and have been innovators in developing novel surgical techniques to optimize sexual function recovery and urinary continence.
