Our History

The Mount Sinai Health System cardiology program is one of the oldest and most distinguished in the country. We have been delivering state-of-the-art heart care, conducting advanced research, and providing best-in-class education for more than a century.

Our preeminent division has been a magnet for luminaries in cardiology, from esteemed alumni like Eugene Braunwald, MD, to world-renowned leaders such as Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, and Deepak Bhatt, MD, MPH, MBA. Through their visionary work and the ongoing dedication of our exceptional team, Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital continues to drive groundbreaking discoveries and shape the future of cardiovascular medicine worldwide.

1904

The Mount Sinai Hospital establishes the Department of Bacteriology and Serology in a new laboratory building.

1909

Alfred E. Cohn, MD, installs in The Mount Sinai Hospital the electrocardiograph machine he brought from Europe, one of the first of its kind in the United States. He leaves Mount Sinai soon after and takes his machine with him.

1912

Emanuel Libman, MD, receives the American Medical Association gold medal for a series of endocarditis samples.

1914

Bernard S. Oppenheimer, MD, procures another electrocardiograph machine for The Mount Sinai Hospital.

1915

The Mount Sinai Hospital opens the electrocardiographic laboratory under Dr. Oppenheimer’s direction.

1917

Dr. Oppenheimer receives an American Medical Association gold medal for an exhibit on electrocardiographic changes associated with myocardial infarction.

1917

Beth Israel Hospital creates a special department for the treatment and prevention of heart disease.

1922

The Mount Sinai Hospital acquires a mobile electrocardiography machine to facilitate exams.

1923

Emanuel Libman, MD, and Benjamin Sacks, MD, describe atypical verrucous endocarditis, now known as Libman-Sacks endocarditis.

1927

Marcus A. Rothschild, MD, becomes head of the electrocardiograph laboratory at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

1927

Dr. Oppenheimer is appointed Physician to the Hospital at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

1928

The Mount Sinai Hospital begins offering postgraduate education.

1929

Arthur A. Master, MD, develops the first standardized exercise test to evaluate heart function through blood pressure and pulse rate.

1933

Dr. Master reports changes in the P-wave as a sign of acute myocardial infarction.

1934

William Hitzig, MD, devises the first clinically applicable method for measuring circulation time to the right heart.

1934

Dr. Master is appointed head of the cardiac clinics and the cardiographic laboratory at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

1935

Dr. Master, in collaboration with Harry R. Jaffe, MD, and Simon Dack, MD, observes that an 800-calorie diet decreases basal metabolic rates, pulse rate, and blood pressure, which means the heart doesn’t have to work as hard.

1939

Marcy Sussman, MD, performs the first angiocardiogram at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

1940

The first use of fluoroscopy is performed to evaluate the degree of myocardial involvement after recovery from acute myocardial infarction.

1941

Charles K. Friedberg, MD, and Dr. Libman author the classic monograph on the recognition and management of subacute bacterial endocarditis.

1942

Dr. Master adds the results of an electrocardiogram to the standards he had previously developed for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease.

1947

Alvin Gordon, MD, performs the first cardiac catheterization at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

1948

Beth Israel Hospital forms an interdisciplinary research unit dedicated to "studying and treating cardiac and vascular diseases by surgery."

1949

Dr. Friedberg authors Diseases of the Heart, the classic cardiology textbook.

1949

The Mount Sinai Hospital establishes a single ambulatory clinic to treat congenital heart disease in children and adults.

1950

The first successful subclavian artery to pulmonary artery anastomosis (Blalock procedure) is performed at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

1950

Dr. Master collaborates with the American Medical Association and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to develop new ranges for normal blood pressure.

1952

The American College of Physicians (ACP) invites The Mount Sinai Hospital to conduct its annual cardiology course for graduate physicians. It was one of the first ACP courses to be based at a hospital without a university affiliation.

1953

A.L. Loomis Bell, Jr., MD, becomes director of the cardiopulmonary laboratory at St. Luke's Hospital and chief of its division of pulmonary medicine.

1954

J. Maxwell Chamberlain, MD, initiates animal research in cardiovascular diseases at Roosevelt Hospital.

1954

The Mount Sinai Hospital records the first simultaneous pressure tracings from the left atrium, left ventricle, and aorta in the exposed human heart, improving the ability to evaluate the efficacy of a corrective procedure.

1956

Dr. Dack becomes president of the American College of Cardiology in 1956 as well as founder and editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Cardiology.

1957

The Mount Sinai Hospital establishes an official cardiology surgery residency training program.

1957

The Mount Sinai Hospital Department of Surgery performs its first open-heart surgery.

1957

Roosevelt Hospital establishes a cardiopulmonary laboratory under the direction of Charles A. Betrand, MD, to diagnose and evaluate disorders of the heart, circulatory system, and lungs.

1958

Dr. Friedberg becomes founding editor of Progress in Cardiovascular Disease.

1967

The Roosevelt Hospital Board of Trustees endorses and adopts a cardiovascular surgical program.

1968

The Mount Sinai Hospital opens the Ames Coronary Care Unit, inaugurated under the direction of Leslie Kuhn, MD.

1970

The St. Luke's Hospital Department of Medicine splits cardiology and pulmonology into separate services.

1971

The Alice and Joseph Warshow Cardiac Care Unit opens at Beth Israel Medical Center.

1974

Beth Israel Medical Center opens an inpatient and outpatient diagnostic and treatment center for cardiac patients.

1976

Beth Israel Medical Center is designated as an emergency heart station.

1976

The Mount Sinai Hospital establishes its first echocardiography laboratory.

1976

The Mount Sinai Hospital establishes the Helmsley Center for Electrophysiology, the first electrophysiology center and laboratory in New York City.

1985

John A. Ambrose, MD, discovers the relationship between complex angiographic coronary lesion morphology and acute coronary events, dramatically altering the way patients are selected for angioplasty and bypass surgery.

1986

Airlie Cameron, MD, publishes the first 15-year follow-up study showing improved survival with the internal thoracic artery as compared with the saphenous vein bypass.

1987

Lina Badimon, PhD, and Juan Jose Badimon, PhD, develop a perfusion chamber to perform controlled evaluations of blood flow, platelet deposition, and thrombus formation under various experimental conditions.

1987

J. Anthony Gomes, MD, develops a noninvasive index of the risk of sudden death among heart attack survivors.

1988

The Mount Sinai Hospital becomes one of a handful of medical centers in the country investigating the use of lasers to remove plaques that block coronary arteries.

1988

In collaboration with colleagues from the Mayo Clinic, Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, and Dr. Lina Badimon are among the first to demonstrate the ability of hirudin to prevent platelet deposition.

1988

St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center cardiologists Henry Greenberg, MD, and Mark Sherrid, MD, demonstrate that paramedic-administered prehospital thrombolysis (clot busting) in the field for acute myocardial infarction results in treatment 86 minutes sooner than if treated in the emergency department, which was common practice.

1988

Beth Israel Medical Center establishes a state-of-the-art nuclear cardiology service.

1989

Beth Israel Medical Center launches a cardiac surgery program.

1990

The Department of Cardiology at Beth Israel Medical Center acquires a positron emission tomography scanner, the first in New York City designated exclusively for the study and diagnosis of early cardiac disease.

1990

The Mount Sinai Hospital establishes the Molecular and Cellular Cardiology Laboratories.

1994

Beth Israel Medical Center dedicates the Alan and Barbara Mirken Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit.

1998

Beth Israel Medical Center establishes the Beth Israel Heart Institute.

1998 - 2019

The Mount Sinai Hospital’s Catheterization Lab and/or its physicians receive the highest two-star New York State safety rating for 21 consecutive years.

2000

Zahi Fayad, PhD, and Dr. Fuster investigate the use of “black blood” magnetic resonance imaging to image the human coronary arterial wall noninvasively.

2000

Beth Israel Medical Center performs the first robotic-assisted cardiothoracic procedure in Manhattan.

2002

Cardiologists at Beth Israel Medical Center perform its first septal ablation, a minimally invasive procedure for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

2003

Harvey S. Hecht, MD, FACC, joins Beth Israel Medical Center as Director of Preventive Cardiology.

2004

Beth Israel Medical Center establishes a Chest Pain Unit in the Emergency Department to standardize and expedite treatment of possible heart attacks.

2004

Mark J. Rosen, MD, Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center and Associate Medical Director for the Petrie Division, is elected President-Designate of the American College of Chest Physicians.

2007

St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center opens a Cardiothoracic Surgery Intensive Care Unit.

2008

At St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Jonathan S. Steinberg, MD, performs the first minimally invasive procedure to treat arrhythmia in the northeast United States.

2012

Dr. Fuster becomes the inspiration for a Muppet doctor on Barrio Sésamo: Monstruos Supersanos.

2014

The Mount Sinai Hospital establishes the Lauder Family Cardiovascular Center of Mount Sinai Heart.

2014

The Mount Sinai Hospital implants the nation’s first miniature leadless pacemaker.

2014

The Mount Sinai Hospital is named a top hospital for heart care by New York State.

2015

Mount Sinai St. Luke’s/Mount Sinai West creates a Department of Cardiovascular Surgery separate from the Department of Surgery.

2015

The Mount Sinai Hospital is listed among the nation’s top hospitals for care excellence in U.S. News & World Report.

2016

Mount Sinai St. Luke’s receives the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR ACTION Registry–GWTG Platinum Performance Achievement Award, one of 223 such hospitals nationwide.

2017

Mount Sinai St. Luke's initiates a $5.9 million upgrade to its cardiology clinic on Amsterdam Avenue.

2017

The Mount Sinai Hospital earns a three-star rating from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons for patient care and outcomes in aortic valve replacement and in coronary artery bypass grafting.

2018

Mount Sinai Heart opens an ambulatory practice, Center for Clinical Cardiovascular Care at Mount Sinai Heart, at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s.

2018

Mount Sinai West opens a Cardiovascular Ambulatory Center to provide cardiology consultation and diagnostic testing.

2018

Mount Sinai St. Luke’s surgeons John Puskas, MD, and Gianluca Torregrossa, MD, perform the first two totally endoscopic coronary arterial bypass surgeries within the Mount Sinai Health System.

2019

Mount Sinai St. Luke’s opens a Catheterization Lab and Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery Administrative Suite.

2019

The Mount Sinai Hospital receives the Joint Commission Comprehensive Cardiac Center Certification, one of four U.S. organizations to hold the honor.

2019

Mount Sinai hospitals earn repeat Magnet recognition for excellence in nursing from the American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program®. This year, The Mount Sinai Hospital receives its fourth consecutive designation, Mount Sinai Queens receives its second, and New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai receives its third such designation.

2019

The Mount Sinai Hospital receives the New York State Department of Health’s highest quality rating for adult cardiac valve surgery.

2019

The Mount Sinai Hospital becomes the only center in New York State to offer heart bypass surgery without major incisions or cutting through the breastbone (endoscopic coronary arterial bypass surgery).

2020

The Mount Sinai Morningside nursing team receives the Beacon Award for Excellence—Bronze Level from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses.

2020

The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Morningside receive Healthgrades’ 2021 Specialty Excellence Awards identifying top hospitals for cardiac care.

2020

The American College of Cardiology awards Mount Sinai Heart its Transcatheter Valve Certification, making Mount Sinai the only cardiac center in the city and one of three statewide to receive the recognition.