Interview with Matt Garner CEO of North Shore Hospital by Charles Felix Publisher/Owner South Florida Hospital News & Healthcare Report
Interview with Michael Bell CEO of Hialeah Hospital by Charles Felix Publisher/Owner South Florida Hospital News and Healthcare Report
June 17 2021 – The American Medical Association (AMA) today introduced the 21 members of its Board of Trustees for the coming year following elections held during the Special Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates.
Gerald E. Harmon, M.D., a family medicine physician from Pawleys Island, S.C., was sworn in as the 176th president of the AMA. With Dr. Harmon’s inauguration as AMA president, the office passed from Susan R. Bailey, M.D., an allergist and immunologist from Fort Worth, Texas and the third consecutive women to have held the office of AMA president. With the conclusion of her term as AMA president, Dr. Bailey assumed the office of AMA immediate past president.
Jack Resneck Jr., M.D., a dermatologist from San Rafael, Calif., was elected AMA president-elect. Dr. Resneck will become AMA president in June 2022.
Bobby Mukkamala, M.D., an otolaryngologist from Flint, Mich., is the new chair of the AMA Board of Trustees, and Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, M.D., an internist from Atlanta, Ga. is the new chair-elect of the Board.
The other executive committee members on the Board of Trustees for 2020-2021 are:
•Scott Ferguson, M.D., a diagnostic radiologist from West Memphis, Ark., is secretary.
•Russ Kridel, M.D., a facial plastic surgeon from Houston, Texas, is immediate past chair.
•Bruce A. Scott, M.D., an otolaryngologist from Louisville, Ky., is speaker of the AMA House of Delegates.
The new members of the Board of Trustees are:
•Madelyn E. Butler, M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist from Tampa, Fla.
•Drayton Charles Harvey, a medical student and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.
•Pratistha Koirala, M.D., Ph.D., an obstetrics-gynecology resident and molecular pharmacologist from Danbury, Conn.
The serving members of the Board of Trustees are:
•David H. Aizuss, M.D., an ophthalmologist from Encino, Calif.
•Willarda V. Edwards, M.D., M.B.A., an internist from Baltimore, Md.
•Lisa Bohman Egbert, M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist from Kettering, Ohio, is the vice speaker of the AMA House of Delegates
•Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, M.D., M.P.H, an anesthesiologist from Milwaukee, Wis.
•Ilse R. Levin, D.O., M.P.H. & T.M., an internist and epidemiologist from Silver Spring, Md.
•Thomas J. Madejski, M.D., a geriatrician and palliative care specialist from Medina, N.Y.
•Mario E. Motta, M.D., a cardiologist from Salem, Mass.
•Harris Pastides, Ph.D., M.P.H., president emeritus and interim president of the University of South Carolina from Folly Beach, S.C., is the public member of the AMA Board
•Michael Suk, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., an orthopaedic surgeon from Danville, Penn.
•Willie Underwood, III, M.D., M.Sc., M.P.H., a urologist from Buffalo, N.Y.
Members of the AMA Board of Trustees are elected by physicians and medical students representing more than 190 state and specialty medical societies who gathered virtually for the Special Meeting of the House of Delegates, the AMA’s policy-making body. The mission of the AMA is the promotion of the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.
June 17 2021 – Palm Health Foundation, Palm Beach County’s community foundation for health, has provided a grant to the Promise Fund of Florida to increase access to affordable breast and cervical health care services to women in need. The funding will support the hire of a “provider network recruiter” who will identify new and existing community resources to expand Promise Fund of Florida’s Continuum of Care Model throughout Palm Beach County to increase health equity and help reach its goal of ensuring all women, regardless of income, receive affordable, timely, high quality, breast and cervical screenings, diagnostics, treatment, and follow up care. Palm Health Foundation joins Quantum Foundation in jointly funding this new position.The Promise Fund of Florida was co-founded by Nancy G. Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen, Julie Fisher Cummings, and Laurie Silvers, three women who have spent decades working to improve quality of life for men and women of all socioeconomic backgrounds in many different areas of need. They founded the Promise Fund of Florida to fill the gaps in access to healthcare and help those in need in Palm Beach County to reduce the number of deaths due to late-stage breast and cervical cancer. Florida ranks last in the United States for the number of women under 65 who have insurance, magnifying their vulnerability to death from cancer because the lack of insurance delays diagnosis and treatment with catastrophic results.
The provider network recruiter will play a critical role in developing partnerships closest to target populations where multiple barriers to care exist, including transportation, language, finding childcare and taking time off from work. The Promise Fund has mapped imaging and screening facilities in Palm Beach County to identify gaps and serve as a blueprint for where the provider network recruiter will create partnerships for affordable cancer care services with physicians, clinics, hospitals, and other providers for Promise Fund participants. The goal is to identify a minimum of 15 health care providers to serve 300 or more women.
“The Promise Fund understands as we do that a person’s health outcomes depend just as much on her ZIP code as her DNA code,” said Patrick McNamara, president and CEO of Palm Health Foundation. “We also recognize the impact the provider network recruiter will have on health equity by creating systems change. Rather than expecting residents to find a way to get to healthcare systems, healthcare systems need to bring their services to the people, especially those with the greatest barriers.”
Palm Health Foundation is confident the new role is poised for success. With the Continuum of Care Model, the Promise Fund of Florida has already formed fundamental partnerships with Baptist Health South Florida, Caridad Center, Marie Louise Cancer Foundation, Community Health Center, Simply-Anthem, Hologic, FoundCare, Palm Beach County Medical Society, Florida Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, Quantum Foundation, Uber Health, Genesis Community Center, Florida Atlantic University School of Nursing, the Northwest Community Health Alliance, and the Health Care District. Through their Patient Navigator Network, which has six partners, over 5,000 women have received outreach and education, and over 1,000 have benefited from navigation services. The provider network recruiter will also work closely with the Promise Fund’s patient navigator coordinator who guides women who have abnormal findings, through the health care system to reduce deaths due to late-stage breast and cervical cancer.
This Promise Fund grant is Palm Health Foundation’s second funding opportunity in recent years to focus on access to women’s cancer care. In 2020, the foundation joined with Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties to provide a grant to Susan G. Komen from its Helen and Harold Bernstein Endowment Fund and Frank & Jennie M. Palen Cancer Support Fund to support a community breast health navigator position in the Glades.
“We are proud to partner with Palm Beach County foundations to support women’s health,” said McNamara. “With almost 2,000 women in Palm Beach County diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer each year, we know the impact on saving lives through our funding is significant,” said McNamara. “No matter where a woman lives, her race or her circumstances, she deserves the care that could save her life.”
On June 17, 2021 the American Lung Association in South Florida announced that Rupesh Kotecha, MD, Chief of Radiosurgery and Mark Dylewski, MD, Chief of General Thoracic Surgery and Medical Director of General and Robotic Thoracic Surgery at Miami Cancer Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, will speak at the virtual LUNG FORCE Expo on June 24.
The LUNG FORCE Expo is designed to educate health professionals about the latest trends, resources and research surrounding lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), COVID-19 and other lung diseases. Dr. Kotecha and Dr. Dylewski will present on lung cancer.
“The pandemic has shined a light on the importance of continuing to support lung disease and lung cancer patients. Chronic lung disease affects more than 37 million Americans, so it is crucial that healthcare professionals remain educated on the latest trends, research and treatment benefiting patients,” said Chrissy Cohen, executive director for the Lung Association. “It is an honor to have Dr. Kotecha and Dr. Dylewski featured at this important event, which aims to help providers improve the lives of those affected by lung diseases, such as lung cancer and COVID-19.”
The event will also highlight topics including health disparities in lung disease, asthma management guidelines, preventing burnout for healthcare professionals and much more. View the full agenda here.
The LUNG FORCE Expo takes place on June 24 from 12 p.m. – 7:35 p.m. ET. Registration is $100. More information and registration are available on the LUNG FORCE Expo website.
About Miami Cancer Institute
Miami Cancer Institute brings to South Florida access to personalized clinical treatments and comprehensive support services delivered with unparalleled compassion. No other cancer program in the region has the combination of cancer-fighting expertise and advanced technology—including the first proton therapy center in South Florida, Latin America and the Caribbean, and one of the only radiation oncology program in the world with each of the newest radiation therapies in one place—to diagnose and deliver precise cancer treatments that achieve the best outcomes and improve the lives of cancer patients. The Institute offers an impressive roster of established community oncologists and renowned experts, clinical researchers and genomic scientists recruited from the nation’s top cancer centers. Selected as Florida’s only member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer (MSK) Alliance, Miami Cancer Institute is part of a meaningful clinical collaboration that affords patients in South Florida access to innovative treatments and ensures that the standards of care developed by their multidisciplinary disease management teams match those at MSK.
Miami Cancer Institute is part of Baptist Health South Florida, the largest healthcare organization in the region, with 11 hospitals, more than 23,000 employees, 4,000 physicians and 100 outpatient centers, urgent care facilities and physician practices spanning across Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Baptist Health has internationally renowned centers of excellence in cancer, cardiovascular care, orthopedics and sports medicine, and neurosciences. In addition, it includes Baptist Health Medical Group; Baptist Health Quality Network; and Baptist Health Care On Demand, a virtual health platform. A not-for-profit organization supported by philanthropy and committed to its faith-based charitable mission of medical excellence, Baptist Health has been recognized by Fortune as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America and by Ethisphere as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. For more information, visit BaptistHealth.net/Newsroom and connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
About the American Lung Association
The American Lung Association is the leading organization working to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy and research. The work of the American Lung Association is focused on four strategic imperatives: to defeat lung cancer; to champion clean air for all; to improve the quality of life for those with lung disease and their families; and to create a tobacco-free future. For more information about the American Lung Association, a holder of the coveted 4-star rating from Charity Navigator and a Gold-Level GuideStar Member, or to support the work it does, call 1-800-LUNGUSA (1-800-586-4872) or visit: Lung.org.