Bloom on Policing Public Housing in The New York Times

Dec 26, 2013

"So many people who don't live in public housing don't realize they are dependent on the well-being of public housing," says Associate Professor Nicholas Bloom, Ph.D. in a New York Times article about policing New York City's public housing developments. "The maintenance of a good housing project brings security, and it's a big factor in the value of property."

Bloom, an expert in urban development and public housing and author of Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century, also commented on Mayor Bill de Blasio's likely plans to eliminate the New York City Housing Authority's $70 million in annual payments to the NYC Police Department for policing in the face of shrinking federal housing subsidies. Bloom says that in the long term, the money saved "can add up to siginficant operating money." 

 

Newsday Features Stories Construct Design Interdisciplinary Project

Dec 20, 2013

"We want students to anticipate what aging seniors' needs are going to be," says gerontologist Tobi Ambramson, Ph.D., in a Newsday article featuring NYIT's "Stories Construct Design" project, a collaboration among students studying mental health, interior design, and occupational therapy. "The whole idea is to help before the crisis hits. And we want them to become aging specialists in their careers."

The article included two case studies presented by students in early December to highlight potential home modifications that local older adults could make to their homes to help them age in place. Interior design students Ashley Herz and Stacie Krug explained some of the changes they suggested for their clients.

"The design should last the whole life of a home," says Herz, whose redesign of a North Massapequa couple's home included installing a wheelchair lift, raising the floor in a lowered den area, and replacing carpeting with cork floors to help prevent falls.

Krug and her team worked with a client who has multiple sclerosis, and they proposed the addition of accessible bathrooms, an elevator, and color pallette changes to help their client see better throughout the home.

"Working with someone who already had needs presented different challenges than with someone who was aging in place," Krug says. "We had to think of what would make her life easier, but with designing you have to think about what makes everyone's life easier." 

 

Larry Herman on the Rise of Physician Assistants

Dec 20, 2013

"You can't argue, with another 20 million to 30 million people in the system, that there aren't enough patients to go around," Department of Physician Assistant Studies Chairman Lawrence Herman, PA-C, tells Long Island Business News (subscription required) in an article about the growing role of physician assistants in healthcare, due in large part to the Affordable Care Act. "It's not like we're struggling to find customers."

In "The Physician Assistant Will See You Now," Herman says about 93,000 physician assistants practice in the United States. New York State has more than 20 physician assistant education programs that train about 1,000 PAs a year. The job outlook for physician assistants is excellent; employment in the field is expected to rise 30% by 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Herman, who is also president of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, says he helps educate his patients about physician assistants, the rigorous education they receive, and the work they do, including medical testing, diagnosis, prescribing medicine, and patient care.

"I correct my patients all the time," says Herman. "They call me 'doctor.' One of the expressions my patients use with me is: 'I know you're not my doctor, but you do my doctoring.'"

 

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."