In a touching ceremony attended by family, friends, and colleagues, the Mount Sinai Health System recently announced the establishment of the Jeremy H. Boal, MD, MSH ’96, Endowed Fund in recognition of Dr. Boal’s extraordinary career and enduring impact. The Fund ensures vital support for the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program, which Dr. Boal co-founded in 1995 with Drs. David Muller and Laurent Adler, and the Hospice and Palliative Care Fellowship at the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine.
Dr. Boal, left, and Donna M. Maddicks, MPA, Executive Director of the Office of the Chief Executive Officer and the Boards of Trustees, Mount Sinai Health System
Ava Boal, left, AMPATH Kenya Program Manager at the Arnhold Institute for Global Health at Mount Sinai, and Rebecca Sandler
Dr. Boal and David Muller, MD, MSH, ’95, Dean Emeritus for Medical Education, Director, Institute for Integrity and Justice in Medical Education, Icahn School of Medicine
From his training as a Brookdale Fellow to his leadership roles, including Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, Dr. Boal’s career exemplifies a deep commitment to improving health care for the most vulnerable. He played a pivotal role in Mount Sinai’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and championed initiatives addressing access to care.
“I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of Mount Sinai in so many ways. I’ve had clinical, academic, operational, and strategic responsibilities. I’ve been responsible for maintaining and improving the quality and safety of the entire Health System at times. It’s been a joy to have had the chance to do all of those things and learn so much.”
–Jeremy H. Boal, MD, MSH ’96
In 2023, Dr. Boal received a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the neurodegenerative disease commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Yet, even as he stepped down from his formal roles at Mount Sinai to focus on his health, Dr. Boal remains dedicated to a lifelong pursuit of compassion, empathy, and care as an active advocate for medical aid-in-dying legislation. Read Dr. Boal’s recently published essay here.
(Update: as of June 9, 2025, the New York State Senate passed the Medical Aid in Dying Act, the first time this has happened since the legislation was introduced in 2016. If signed into law by Governor Hochul, New York will become the 12th state to authorize this end-of-life care option.)
In His Own Words: Dr. Boal Reflects Upon a Career of Curiosity and Compassion
From left: Drs. David Muller, Laurent Adler, and Jeremy Boal, circa 1996
“I came to Mount Sinai in the early nineties as a second-year internal medicine resident. During my residency, I was curious about a number of patients in our practices who clearly needed care but were missing appointments. David Muller and I came up with the idea to use some elective time to track down some of these patients and ask them if we could go visit them in their homes to try to figure out what the gaps were in accessing care.
Even as busy as residencies are, I was developing this incredible curiosity and passion for understanding how the system works or doesn’t work and figuring out how to make it work better. That’s how the Visiting Doctors Program was started—with the intention of creating a clinical platform to bring care to patients in our communities who had great difficulty or simply couldn’t come to the hospital or our practices to get care.
When we proposed this idea to our residency director, Dr. Larry Smith, our chair of medicine, Dr. Barry Coller, and to other leaders, there was an interest and a willingness to explore it with us while recognizing that it was a daunting goal.
The response we got was: “let’s figure this out, and if you hit roadblocks, come tell us and we will help you.” It was a combination of us and our curiosity and our desire to make things better. And being lucky to be at a place like Mount Sinai that embraces taking on hard challenges. Mount Sinai has always been a place of profound curiosity and a willingness to try new things.
Since then, the program has operated continuously, caring for tens of thousands of New Yorkers all over Manhattan, significantly impacting those most vulnerable and at risk of losing access to care.
Being at Mount Sinai for most of my career and then having a chance to step away gave me an opportunity to gain a lot of insight into what makes Mount Sinai truly unique and truly special. In addition to the intense curiosity that is part of Mount Sinai’s DNA, another key characteristic is an absolute commitment to excellence and an intolerance for mediocre outcomes. If you work at Mount Sinai, you’re working at a place where we demand the best possible outcome for every patient and for our communities. And we are not afraid to be clear about that, we’re not afraid to take on really tough challenges.
Over the years, we’ve become a health system with many assets, hospitals, ambulatory sites, and virtual care, but we’ve never lost track of our vital mission and values. COVID was an extraordinary challenge and bearing witness to so much pain and suffering and so much loss transformed us as an organization. We had to flatten our hierarchy even more, create a structure where we could react and proactively act to address unpredictable challenges, at the speed at which they were occurring and experiment our way forward. This approach allowed us to save many more lives and protect our staff to a much greater degree.
Dr. Boal, front row, second from left, celebrates the 2017 opening of the Mount Sinai-Union Square Urgent Care with Mount Sinai leaders, local politicians, and community organizers
I’ve had the chance to spend decades working with extraordinary people on the most important mission of all: to create a world in which everybody can live the longest and healthiest, most disability-free life possible. There’s a unique ecosystem at Mount Sinai. It’s grounded in its values and in this commitment to collaborative discovery that allows for the creation of miracles, of extraordinary change. I’ve been witness to that for decades. I’m blown away by what our medical school creates. I’m blown away by what our hospitals and our ambulatory environments create and what they deliver. There’s just a fire in the belly of this organization to not accept the status quo. And that fills me with joy and gratitude.”
The above is excerpted from an interview with Dr. Boal upon receiving the 2024 Jacobi Medallion, the highest award bestowed upon a member of the Mount Sinai community.
“We celebrate Dr. Boal for what he has done, but also for who he is; for his clinical brilliance, his leadership, his tenacity, his kindness, his thoughtfulness, his friendship, his fervent belief in equity, and for simply doing the right thing for everyone around him every time—even during the most difficult circumstances.”
Brendan G. Carr, MD, MA, MS, Chief Executive Officer, Professor and Kenneth L. Davis, MD, Distinguished Chair, Mount Sinai Health System
“Jeremy’s empathy for people and human suffering is the foundation that drove all of the work that he’s done over the course of his career. He has such empathy for human suffering. There are no awards for that.”
David Muller, MD, MSH, ’95, Dean Emeritus for Medical Education, Director, Institute for Integrity and Justice in Medical Education, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Co-founder of MSVD with Dr. Boal
About the Jeremy H. Boal, MD, MSH ’96, Endowed Fund
Through the establishment of the Jeremy Boal Endowment, Mount Sinai not only celebrates Dr. Boal’s remarkable achievements but also fortifies the future of initiatives that embody his values. This fund is a cornerstone for advancing health care delivery and education, ensuring our most vulnerable patients receive the high-quality, compassionate care they deserve.
The Fund supports the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program and the Hospice and Palliative Care Fellowship at the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine.
While certain aspects of the Visiting Doctors program’s invaluable work are covered by insurance, many vital services—such as social work and caregiver support—depend on generous philanthropic contributions. The Jeremy Boal Endowed Fund ensures the sustainability of this transformative program, allowing it to amplify its reach and magnify its impact on the lives of homebound individuals and their caregivers. Generous support from donors helps Mount Sinai continue to be national leaders in home-based primary care.
About the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program
Now in its 30th year, the program serves more than 1,000 homebound patients annually, providing compassionate, multidisciplinary care that addresses complex medical and social needs. The MSVD team—comprising physicians, nurses, social workers, and dedicated administrative staff—delivers personalized, multidisciplinary care directly to patients in their homes. This innovative approach encompasses not only physical examinations and medical management but also helps patients navigate essential resources and support systems, enabling them to remain in the comfort of their own homes. By doing so, MSVD has set a national standard in home-based primary care.
About the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship
Additionally, the endowed fund supports the Brookdale Fellowship, fostering the next generation of leaders in geriatrics and palliative medicine. Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness and is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness, and it can be provided along with curative treatment. This fellowship empowers physicians to meet the distinctive needs of ill and/or aging populations, an area where Dr. Boal has made significant strides. His legacy serves as a powerful inspiration for emerging clinicians, researchers, and advocates dedicated to providing holistic and compassionate care.
To learn more or contribute to the Jeremy Boal Endowed Fund, please contact Bryce Shaffer, Associate Director of Development, at bryce.shaffer@mountsinai.org or 929-637-3399. Together, we can honor Dr. Boal’s legacy and continue his mission of transforming care for generations to come.