Promotional spots celebrate Upstate during weeks that honor hospital, nurses

Have  you seen the new commercial spots promoting Upstate? They feature employees talking about what makes them proud. Dozens of employees were interviewed and photographed for the spots, produced by Solon Quinn Studios.

One commercial focuses on nursing, another on patients, and a third on the Upstate team. See which is your favorite.

View posters that are part of the Proud to Know campaign.

Here is the spot focused on nursing.

Here is the spot focused on the Upstate team.

 Here is the spot focused on Upstate patients.

Watch the Proud to Know videos.

He’s 97 — and still volunteering

Bob Donahue has volunteered for 36 years.

Have you met Bob Donahue? He’s been a fixture on the Community Campus since 1976. He has contributed some 18,000 hours of his time, and he continues to volunteer weekly. Read about Donahue in this month’s newsletter from the Community Campus: Meet Bob Donahue

Syracuse Press Club awards Upstate writer, photographers

Photographer Susan Kahn and humor writer Jeff Kramer pose at the Syracuse Press Club awards banquet Saturday night. Photograph by Susan Keeter.

Humorist Jeff Kramer.

Upstate humor writer Jeff Kramer and photographers Susan Kahn and Bob Mescavage received awards from the Syracuse Press Club Saturday night during the annual banquet. Their work appears in Upstate’s magazine, Upstate Health, as well as this blog.

Kramer won first place for column writing in the special interest print category for his column, “Stress threatens to trip humorist Jeff Kramer’s healthy lifestyle.” He has written many columns about his journey to improve his health, since he ended up in the emergency department in 2011 with symptoms of a heart attack. He also wrote about his experience as a “victim” at a mock disaster last summer at the Syracuse airport.

Photographer Susan Kahn.

Photographs from that disaster drill, by photographers Bob Mescavage and Susan Kahn, were awarded second place in the press club category of photo essay. (See a slideshow of the photos, here.)

This was the press club’s 35th annual professional recognition awards dinner, in which media professionals from throughout the Central New York region gathered to honor one another for online journalism, as well as print, television and radio. There is also a category featuring work from college students. The event was held at Drumlins.

Read Kramer’s first-place column

See Mescavage and Kahn’s photos from the drill

Upstate’s Dr. Sharon Brangman, MD, division chief of geriatrics, was quoted in Matt Porter’s story for NCC News (Syracuse University’s Newhouse Communications Center) called “Too Many Pills Create Problems for Patients.” Porter took first place.

Get the facts on stroke during Stroke Awareness Month

A stroke occurs when a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or bursts. When that happens, part of the brain cannot get the oxygen it needs, and brain cells die.

About 795,000 Americans each year suffer a new or recurrent stroke. That means, on average, a stroke occurs every 40 seconds. Stroke kills more than 137,000 people a year. That’s about 1 of every 18 deaths. It’s the No. 4 cause of death.

HealthLink, Upstate’s free lecture series, offers two talks on the subject of stroke, in which participants will be able to ask the expert during a question-and-answer period. They are:

• 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 8. “How To Prevent Stroke,” with Waleed El Nour, MD from Upstate University Hospital. This will be held at the OASIS/HealthLink
Learning Center, 6333 St. Route 298, 
East Syracuse.

• 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 15. “TIA – What You Need to Know,” with Adham Kamel, MD from Upstate University Hospital. This will be held at the Liverpool Library, 310 Tulip St., Liverpool. A transient ischemic attack is when blood flow to a part of the brain stops for a brief period of time.

Registration is required for these free presentations. Call 464-8668.

The Upstate Stroke Center is the region’s first designated stroke center with the only specialized neuroscience step-down and neuroscience intensive care unit. And, the American Heart Association awarded the center with its 2013 Get With the Guidelines Gold Plus Award for Stroke Care.

Medicine chairman comments on Syracuse air quality

Dr. Michael Iannuzzi, MD is interviewed by CNY Central meteorologist Matt Stevens. Photo by Kathleen Paice Froio.

An American Lung Association “State of the Air” report last week caught the attention of Dr. Michael Iannuzzi, MD, who chairs the Department of Medicine at Upstate. He spoke with Matt Stevens, a meteorologist at CNY Central about the grade of “C” for ozone.

The rate of asthma is higher among children, compared with adults, and children are more likely to be outdoors and active during the heat of the day, when ozone levels are at the worst.

Iannuzzi suggests to parents that “when the air quality index and the ozone levels get particularly bad, limit the time that the child is outdoors playing. And keep an eye on the temperature; as the days get hotter, and the air pollution and the ozone gets worse, those are the days when less outdoor activity should be planned.”

Watch the segment on CNY Central.

A flower a day makes this doctor happy

Robert Roger Lebel, MD

This man has a happy habit. Look at the daffodil in the breast pocket of his white lab coat. Today, it’s a daffodil. Tomorrow, the pocket may hold a carnation or a tulip or something else.

Robert Roger Lebel, MD wears a different flower every day. It’s something he started doing as a third-year medical student at the University of Wisconsin Medical School (where he graduated in 1982.) He heard stories of a long-departed faculty member who wore a fresh flower every day. He liked the idea, so he resurrected the trend as he began clinical rotations.

Today he works in Upstate’s Center for Development, Behavior and Genetics, and he does not usually wear a lab coat seeing patients. But he wears it the rest of his day, teaching and during meetings. “It causes smiles to break out in the hallways as you’re walking along,” he says.

Typically he purchases a floral bouquet each week, enjoying it either at home or in the office, choosing one bloom to place in a vial of water to ride around in his pocket at the start of each day.

If you see him in the hallways, be sure to give Lebel a smile.

Cancer Survivors Day organizers select ‘magical day’ theme

Upstate invites cancer survivors of all ages to the National Cancer Survivors Day celebration from noon to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, June 2. Reservations — free for survivors and their guests — are accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis, and seating is limited. Call Upstate Connect at 1-315-464-8668 by May 25.

This year’s theme is a “magical day,” with guests invited to dress as their favorite animated cartoon characters. A prize will go to the person with the best costume.

The celebration is sponsored by the Upstate Cancer Center, the American Cancer Society and the Central New York Oncology Nursing Society.

Marathon runners help researchers, patients and students

Through runs and other events, the Salt City Road Warriors have raised $55,000 for Upstate Medical University. Their 2013 goal is to nearly double that amount.

The Salt City Road Warriors are a team of  ”lots of good people who want to raise money and run,” says Sheri Dozier Owens, one of 60 runners in the team that supports research, patient care and education at Upstate Medical University. Each year, the Road Warriors, led by coach Maureen Clark, select specific Upstate funds to support. This year’s goal is to raise $50,000 for heart disease and cancer services. They’ve already raised $15,000 at one event.

Marathon runner Sheri Dozier Owens is part of a team raising money for Upstate.

“My parents inspired me to have a special interest in raising money for  cancer research,” says Dozier Owens, who is on the staff of  the Syracuse Community Health Center.  Her parents, Wilson and Mary Weatherly, died of cancer. Her father died of prostate cancer in 1993, her mother of colon cancer in 1999.

“She didn’t do the screenings,” laments Dozier Owens.

How did Dozier Owens start running? “Seven years ago, I lost 60 pounds and started running as part of staying healthy,” she explains.  “I ran my first marathon at Disney World in 2006.”

Today, a little over a  week after the bombings at the Boston Marathon, what’s on her mind? “There will never be another run where I don’t think about those who lost loved ones or had loved ones who were injured,” says Dozier Owens. “I can’t imagine their heartache.”

The Boston  tragedy isn’t stopping Dozier Owens.  She’s training for the Lake Placid Marathon to be held on June 9. It will be her ninth marathon.

 

Hospital workers, families of patients donate at Blood Drive

Upstate University Hospital employee Terry Erhart, from Linen Services, donated blood Thursday.

Upstate University Hospital hosts blood drives regularly, to help maintain a community supply of blood for patients, and to help reduce the cost of blood units Upstate purchases for patient care. The event held today, Thursday, April 25, attracted donors from all over campus. It continues from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday.

Gene Latorre, MD assistant professor of neurology, gave blood.

Hospital CEO John McCabe, MD was among the donors.

Learn how to prepare to donate blood.

Also donating was Vincent Frechette, MD, director of the Hospitalist Program.

Physical plant employee Mark Rioux said he gave blood today so he could save a life on his daughter’s birthday. Joseph Grage is currently serving in the United States Army and donated blood today because his wife is a patient and he recognizes the need for donating blood.

For training in top career options, consider Upstate

Did you see the list of the most promising careers for 2013, issued this week by CareerCast? Seven of the top careers have instructional programs at Upstate. The CareerCast list has been compiled annually for the past 25 years, based on salary, working conditions and job potential. This year’s top job is actuary, and the worst is newspaper reporter. Many of the best careers are medical.

“The best jobs offer the ultimate career goal — personal fulfillment,” CareerCast publisher Tony Lee told the Wall Street Journal. “They also offer a bright outlook and job opportunities for years to come.”

Physical therapist ranks No. 9. Ranking No. 34 is respiratory therapy, followed by psychiatrist at No. 37. A general practice physician ranks No. 45, physician assistant ranks No. 50, and surgeon ranks No. 51. A medical technologist ranks No. 67.