Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/479686
www.HartfordBusiness.com December 8, 2014 • Hartford Business Journal HCH.3 HealtH Care Heroes 2014 William Barnett, Ph.D. Dean of Graduate Studies Trinity College gradstudy@trincoll.edu http://gradstudy.trincoll.edu Who should benefit from higher education: individual degree recipients or society as a whole? The obvious answer is "both"! But that answer increasingly is not matched by public policy or funding. Continual decreases in the proportion of the cost of college borne by government funding is a major factor in shifting the financial burden to the shoulders of individual students, often resulting in crushing debt. The advanced education that health care professionals receive amply illustrates how education benefits all. To be sure, health care workers enhance their careers by earning professional degrees and certification. But the skills that they receive and the research that many conduct result directly in better health care for us all. Accordingly, Trinity College aims for its graduate program in health care policy to benefit the community, not just individual students. Restoring public funding for the education of health care professionals to prior levels will reduce individual student debt and help ensure that all will continue to enjoy better health care. HEALTH CARE HEROES BENEFIT ALL O rganizations thrive when they have employees who go beyond the call of duty to satisfy customers. Nowhere is that type of extra effort more valuable and important than in the health- care industry, where one doctor, nurse, or volunteers' decision to do more than is expected could mean the difference between life and death for a patient. This week, we are honoring eight Health Care Heroes in Greater Hartford, who are making a difference in our community every day. One element that ties together many of our winners is their ability to work beyond their job description to keep patients safe, happy and healthy. In the pages of this special section, you'll meet a physician who is performing research on her own time to determine the most effective cancer screening for women with dense breast tissue, and a nurse who makes week-long, voluntary trips to third-world countries to provide free health care. You'll also meet a volunteer who has spent more than a half-century donating her time and efforts to a local hospital and a chief academic officer who has developed new ways for emergency personnel to respond to active shooter and mass casualty victims. We also highlight a construction worker turned emergency care technician whose bright personality and warm smile offer comfort to patients facing traumatic incidents. Our judges — Angela Mattie (Quinnpiac University), John O'Connell (C.M. Smith Agency Inc.) and Maryland Grier (Connecticut Health Foundation) — played a key role identifying our Health Care Heroes. Using standard criteria they voted on nominees in eight different categories ranging from nurses, physicians, and volunteers to industry leaders who made advancements in healthcare prevention and innovation. The judges were particularly adept at finding heroes who are innovators, like the dean of the University of St. Joseph's pharmacy school who developed a non-traditional curriculum that is training the next generation of pharmacists. We profile a doctor who is using robotics technology to help MS patients live more produc- tive and active lives, and a dietician who is reinventing the way children and employees eat at one local hospital. Collectively, they are an impressive class of Health Care Heroes. We recently honored them during a Dec. 2 luncheon at the Connecticut Convention Center in downtown Hartford. Our heroes were nominated by those who know their work the best — co-workers, clients, even significant others. They share a common passion for the services they provide and for the life-changing impacts they have on the lives of others. We hope you join us in congratulating them. And remember, it's not too early to start think- ing about who you'd like to nominate for next year's class of Health Care Heroes. — Greg Bordonaro, Editor Greater Hartford's Health Care Heroes serve patients, community