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The Center for Health, Media and Policy celebrates the role of the arts in contributing to the critical conversations we are having or need to have about health and health policy. That’s why we’re encouraging those residing in the Greater New York metropolitan region to attend the rock-opera, Playing God: The Rock Opera created by Finnish bioethicists and musicians Matti Häyry and Tuija Takala and legendary drummer Corky Laing.

 

This production is sponsored by the Weill Cornell Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) and is FREE.  This production has audience members enthralled as they engage you to think about several key social issues we must give more thought to including “designer babies” and “savior siblings.”

 

Playing God tells the story of a fictional small town whose inhabitants have enjoyed the benefits of gene technology for decades. As the paths of the young characters—whose lives, loves and futures have been shaped by genetic intervention—collide, the secrets, sacrifices and ethical compromises of the community are exposed.

 

Through the story, music and characters, Playing God challenges the audience to study their own ethical convictions, raising open-ended questions about parental choices, perfection, identity and what it means to be human in a world when our fundamental genes are open to manipulation. Playing God has been critically praised and likened to such classic rock theatre pieces as Tommy, The Wall and the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

 

Following the performance, there will be an ethics panel discussion moderated by Joseph J. Fins, MD, The E. William Davis, Jr. MD, Professor of Medical Ethics and Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Director of the Research Ethics Consultation Service, Weill Cornell CTSC.

 

RSVP to this free event at http://ctsc.med.cornell.edu/PlayingGodRocks.

 

The Center for Health, Media and Policy

privacyMany of us trust that our insurance companies or hospital or health care providers keep our information confidential. But that trust has repeatedly been broken.

In February, ProPublica published a story by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charles Ornstein about this situation, noting that since October 2009, health care providers and organizations (including third parties that do business with them) had reported more than 1,140 large breaches of data security, affecting close to 41 million people.

On April 2nd, Healthstyles begins with producer and moderator Diana Mason interviewing Ornstein about the confidentiality of our health care information. Ornstein will be continuing his investigation of breaches of health care information and their impact on the organizations and on people’s lives. Those who would like to share their stories of experiences with breaches of their health care information with Ornstein can go to the Patient Privacy page of ProPublica.  (Disclosure: Charles Ornstein is a member of the National Advisory Council for the Center for HealthMedia& Policy at Hunter College that sponsors Healthstyles.) You can listen to the interview by clicking here:

A number of advisory panels, including some for the Food and Drug Administration and the Cochrane Collaboration that conducts systematic reviews of the evidence on various health care practices, include what are called consumer representatives.

Most times, these are representatives of consumer advocacy organizations who are vastly outnumbered by health professionals and industry representatives on the panels. In fact, the consumer representatives may find that they are the lone dissenting voice on a recommendation put forth by a panel.

Nonetheless, they are an important and essential voice that can serve as the conscience of a panel, demanding accountability for whose interests are being advanced in a particular discussion or recommendation.

On the second part of Healthstyles, Diana Mason interviews  Maryann Napoli, deputy director of the Center for Medical Consumers, about her experiences as a consumer representative on federal and other advisory panels. You can listen to this interview here:

So tune in on Thursday, April 2nd, from 1:00 to 2:00 PM on WBAI, 99.5 FM in New York City (streaming online at www.wbai.org).

Healthstyles is sponsored by the Center for Health, Media & Policy at Hunter College, City University of New York.

Many of us trust that our insurance

We are pleased to welcome our newest Senior Fellow,

 

Kristi Westphaln. 

kristi-head-shot

 

Kristi Westphaln, RN MSN PNP-PC is a San Diego based Nurse Practitioner with a passion for pediatric clinical practice, child advocacy, and nursing education.

 

She is proud to now be 13 years in and still counting her adventures in nursing – with 8 years of PNP expertise in the arenas of pediatric emergency health care, trauma, and child abuse. 

 

Along with the pleasure of “keeping it real” for children and families at the bedside in the Emergency Department, Kristi enjoys educating other Health Care Professionals. She has presented educational content on child abuse and trauma at conferences for both the California Association of Nurse Practitioners (CANP) and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP).

 

She also serves as faculty for the Hahn School of Nursing at the University of San Diego (USD), as an Assistant Clinical Professor for the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and is a clinical preceptor for Nurse Practitioner students.

 

Some of Kristi’s additional adventures in nursing include publication in the Advanced Emergency Nursing Journal, certification as a pediatric sexual assault forensic examiner, and partaking in international medical missions. Her educational background includes a BSN degree from California State University Los Angeles and a MSN degree from the University of California Los Angeles.

 

Ms. Westphaln will be starting her PhD in nursing in fall 2015 at the University of San Diego with plans to conduct research in the field of child maltreatment and neglect. She remains optimistic that education and advocacy are key ingredients to improving the health and welfare of our children.

We are pleased to welcome our newest