Herman Gives His Two Cents on Germs and Money

Dec 17, 2013

“Currency contains all sorts of traces of stuff, including illicit drugs and especially lots of germs,” Physician Assistant Studies Chair Lawrence Herman, RPA-C, tells The Weather Channel in "16 Germ-Infested Places and Things You Need to Know About."

Herman, who is also president of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, adds: “Just imagine where some of those dollar bills were tucked.”

Cell phones, kitchen sinks, cutting boards, and TV remotes were among the other items likely to hoard germs. 

 

Blazey: Trust and Knowledge Help the Doctor-Patient Relationship

Dec 10, 2013

"I've had patients who have left their previous doctor because they said that in a 15-minute appointment the doctor spend 10 minutes typing," says William Blazey, DO, in an article entitled "Can the Doctor-Patient Relationship Survive?" in Medical Economics.

Blazey says time demands required by electronic health records can cut into quality care. Another challenge, he notes, is the coordination of care among specialists.

"As a primary care doc, one of the cornerstones of what I try to do with my patients is coordinate their care among specialists, especially if it's a cancer diagnosis or something else that requires multiple specialists," says Blazey. "Often  I find that patients will see a specialist and then forget who they saw so they can't relay back to me the testing they had done."

Blazey says that trust and knowledge about the patient are essential ingredients for maintaining a healthy doctor-patient relationship.

"When you have that longitudinal relationship with the person, you start to understand them and know the best way to reach them," he says.

 

NYIT Professor: Beam Power Where it’s Needed

Dec 06, 2013

Stephen Blank, NYIT Professor of Electrical and Chemical Engineering, notes that sending power over long distances via lasers and balloons could help provide emergency power to various areas, such as disaster zones.

Citing the recent typhoon in the Philippines, for example, Blank is quoted in the December 2013 issue of New Scientist as saying, "You could have an aircraft carrier off the coast of the Philippines, with its nuclear generator, beaming power where it's needed."

 

Arch Daily Features NYIT Student-Led Recycling Center in Costa Rica

Dec 03, 2013

An Arch Daily feature on NYIT's student-led recycling center construction project in Nosara, Costa Rica noted the need for improved municipal waste management in the area: "Without appropriate infrastructure and policies, over 1,400 tons of waste is deposited into unregulated dumps daily, A lot of the garbage makes its way into reivers and forests, pollutes ground water, threatens the health of local communities and destorys wildlife."

School of Engineering and Design Associate Professor Tobias Holler helped manage the effort to build the center. Students traveled to Costa Rica with the help of funds raised by two successful Kickstarter campaigns. They joined local construction workers in building the new center, which will also serve as an education center for the community.

 

Sexual Abuse on High School Campuses Put School Officials on Notice

Nov 25, 2013

"If these experiences make it extremely difficult for college-aged students to continue their education, how much more difficult must it be for younger girls?" asks College of Arts and Sciences Assistant Professor Beth Adubato in a Christian Science Monitor article about sexual assaults and school accountability in the wake of indictments against four school officials in the Steubenville rape case.

Adubato, who teaches behavioral science, says college-aged women who are victims of sexual assault often find that their schools fail to investigate cases or have inadequate programs in place to educate students about date rape or acquaintance rape. Victims face a lack of support from the school community as well. Adubato believes high schools should be held to the same standards as colleges, who currently receive Federal guidance about concerns that arise in sexual violence cases. The Steubenville case, she adds, provides an important look at the issue of sexual violence among high school students.

 

Holler on Kickstarter Crowdfunding in Newsday

Nov 24, 2013

"We surpassed our goals but were surprised by how much work it takes to continuously advertise a campagin, the Facebook, tweeting, answering people's questions," says School of Architecture and Design Associate Professor Tobias Holler in a Newsday article about crowdfunding on Kickstarter.

Holler and his team of students raised more than $30,000 in two Kickstarter campaigns to help build a student-designed recycling center in Nosara, Costa Rica. Some of the funds will also be used to create a documentary about the successful project. 

 

Bloom in the Wall Street Journal on Renaming Airport After JFK

Nov 21, 2013

It was a natural choice to rename the New York International Airport-Anderson Field after John F. Kennedy a short time after his death, says Nicholas Bloom in The Wall Street Journal.  Commenting in "For JFK, the King of Camelot, and Airport in Queens," Bloom says no one called the airport by its real name.

"For New York, this airport was the future," says Bloom, who is writing a book on the airport's history. "It was Mayor LaGuardia's baby, ironically enough. He saw that the airport we now call LaGuardia was too small. The city needed a big airport to let it grow. It became the international airport, which was all the more important when the United Nations headquarters was built here."

Bloom describes the airport as "an ecumenical space for the citizens of the world, with interfaith chapels and international, distinctly decorated pavilions -- like Epcot Center without the rides -- where the German airline was a few booths down from the Israeli airline."

 

Guiliano in The Huffington Post: Designing Degrees for Digital Gatekeepers

Nov 21, 2013

NYIT President Edward Guiliano’s commentary in The Huffington Post calls for institutions of higher education to address the critical need for a much larger, sophisticated, and innovative cyber security work force.

He states: “The call to action for universities is obvious: We need to innovate. We need to broadly incorporate information- and systems-security practices and principles into our academic programs. We also need to produce more graduates in this field.”

He notes that collaboration among industry, government, and academia is vital, but universities’ role at this juncture is the linchpin, and offers various calls to action.  

 

NYIT Nursing Experts Talk about Trauma After ICU Stays

Nov 20, 2013

"Most people have never heard that patients suffer long-term effects post-ICU," says School of Health Professions Nursing Instructor Lisa Sparacino, MS, RN, CCRN in ADVANCE for Nurses. "When a person recovers from a critical illness the public views it as a good thing. Since it is not viewed that a loss occurs, many patients and family members do not recognize that they are suffering a loss and do not seek treatment."

Nursing Department Chair Susan Neville said patients, family members and others in a support network can experience long-lasting effects after a patient receives a critical illness diagnosis following an intensive care unit admission.  Post Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS) can result from both the illness and treatments.

"Family members find themselves dealing with strains on personal relationships and often the threat of loss of a job and/or failing at a personal goal," says Sparacino, a critical care nurse for 27 years. "They often feel separated from the care of their loved one and helpless when attempting to support their critically-ill loved one."

Sparacino recommends that nurses involve the patient and family in care planning, day-to-day planning and interventions. Nurses should also understand how culture, socio-economic status and spiritually affect the coping processes of patients and their families.

 

Chute Advises Parents on Coping with a Child's Deafness

Nov 19, 2013

"It is amazing the strength that parents demonstrate and how they take that energy and infuse it into their deaf children," writes School of Health Professions Dean Patricia Chute, Ed.D. for the online resource ExpertBeacon.com.  Chute, an audiologist who has worked in the field of cochlear implantation for nearly 40 years, provides tips and advice for parents of children who are deaf.

"These deaf infants are now young men and women who have opportunities to attend colleges and sit next their hearing peers. Many have gone on to be doctors, lawyers, teachers and husbands and wives with their own children. Their hearing losses have never defined them. That has come from parents who took what was handed to them and turned it into part of their own legacy as parents of children who were born deaf."