Helen M. Fernandez, MD, MPH

Professor

Director, Geriatrics Fellowship Program

Associate Director, Medical Education

Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Fernandez completed her residency in Internal Medicine/Pediatrics at Saint Vincent's Medical Center in New York.  She then completed her fellowship in Geriatrics, where she also served as a Chief Fellow, and a Masters of Public Health degree at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.  In 2002, she received a Geriatric Academic Career Award.  Her career interests include osteoporosis, evidence-based medicine, cultural competency and medical education.

Since 2002, Dr. Fernandez has presented Annual Updates in Geriatric Medicine at national and regional venues including the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) and American Geriatrics Society (AGS).  She has presented on topics including geriatric models of care, medication management, career development and curriculum development at national and international meetings including the World Gerontology Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2005, the ACP International Meeting in Mexico, 2006, and the International Association for Medical Education Annual Conference in Genoa, Italy, 2006, in Trondeim, Norway, 2007, in Prague, Czech Republic, 2008, in Malaga, Spain in 2009 and in Glasglow in 2010.  She is a Course Director for the annual “Intensive Update with Board Review in Geriatric and Palliative Medicine”, in addition to the “Master Clinician-Educator Program in Geriatrics” and “Physician Mini-Fellowships: Geriatrics for Non-Geriatricians” programs funded by Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.  She was the Principal Investigator of an Aetna Foundation grant to teach medical students about the interaction of culture and palliative care.  In 2006, she received a grant from the Aetna Foundation for a project on the impact of culture on palliative care education.  In 2007, she became the Co-Program Director of the Consortium of New York Geriatric Education Centers.  Since 2008, she has been an active member of the Ethnogeriatrics Committee of AGS and Health Disparities Task Force for SGIM.  In 2010, she became a National Hispanic Medical Association Fellow and is working on policy recommendations for workforce diversity. In 2010, she received the Leo Tow Gold Humanism Award.