These files are arranged in two series and span the career of Robert S. Siffert, MD. One series is the office files of Dr. Siffert from when he served as Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics at Mount Sinai from 1960-1986 and then as Acting Chairman in 1993. These files include some departmental information in the Administrative folders, outlining in particular the relationship between Mount Sinai and the Orthopaedic services at Elmhurst, the VA, and the Hospital for Joint Diseases. Many of the files relate to Siffert’s outside activities. Of particular note are files outlining his involvement in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and his work on handicapped children. There are also files about his work with CARE/MEDICO and his many foreign trips to attend meetings and present papers.

The other series contains material from the Orthopaedics Department History and Archives Project that Dr. Siffert began in his retirement, starting in 1994. This material is composed mostly of reprints and photocopies of articles written by early departmental staff. (Reprints for physicians after Dr. Siffert were not retained as they are usually available electronically.) There are lists created by Dr. Siffert of staff and residents over the years from 1910 to 1995, and photocopies of the Orthopaedics section of Mount Sinai’s Annual Report from 1967-1993. There is also a bibliography of the Orthopedics Research Laboratory. These materials were gathered and made available in the department’s Edgar Bick Library. A display was created showing photographs, books, articles, as well as a compression screwbolt and a transfixion prosthesis developed by Robert K. Lippmann, MD. The display was dismantled in 2012, allowing these items to be sent to the Mount Sinai Archives.

Dr. Eileen Callahan relates her experiences and difficulties helping geriatric patients during the initial stages of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Patricia Bloom discusses her early years in Minnesota, the roots of her interest in international community medicine; her medical education and meeting her husband, Harrison Bloom, in medical school; their joint interest in pursuing a social medicine program during residency; how she was introduced to geriatrics at Montefiore and then later was persuaded to move to St. Luke’s Hospital and help found their geriatrics program, and continue to develop her medical career. Dr. Bloom spends time discussing the challenges of raising children while working full time, international medical students in the U.S., and the challenges of medicine in Africa, particularly among the older population. She mentions a number of colleagues including David Hammerman, Gerard M. Turino, Michael Grieco, Greg Steinberg and Joel Barrish.