C-HIT Chosen For Knight News Match

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In a move intended to underscore the growing importance of independent, in-depth journalism, the Knight Foundation has launched an end-of-year program that will match donations to C-HIT and select other nonprofit news organizations. Dubbed the Knight News Match, the program will match donations from individual donors to C-HIT and 56 other news groups nationwide, up to a total of $1.5 million, through Jan.19. Individual organizations are eligible to receive up to $25,000 in matching funds. “News Match is a call to action for everyone who believes in quality, trustworthy, in-depth journalism and the role nonprofit news organizations play in building strong communities,” the Knight Foundation said in announcing the program. “Successful journalism organizations need a passionate, dedicated community of supporters.

Event

Doctors, Dietitians And Executive Chef Team Up For C-HIT Diabetes Forum

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For the roughly 9 percent of Connecticut’s population who live with diabetes, eating healthy and knowing how foods can affect the disease is crucial to managing it. The Conn. Health I-Team, (www.c-hit.org) in collaboration with ConnectiCare and the Hispanic Health Council, is hosting a public forum featuring a sampling of healthy food choices on Thursday, Sept. 29, at the Lyceum in Hartford, where experts will discuss the latest developments in diabetes treatments and offer advice about how adopting a healthy lifestyle can help combat the disease. The free event, “Recipes for Healthy Living: Defeating Diabetes,” will include a social hour, cooking demonstration and food tasting starting at 5 p.m. Billings Forge Executive Chef Becky Stevens-McGuigan will present her picks for good food choices, including grilled chicken skewers with salsa verde, watermelon and feta skewers, roasted sweet potato salad and a roasted cauliflower salad.

health care

Five Care Facilities Receive National Quality Awards

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Five Connecticut facilities have won national quality awards and a West Hartford nursing home is one of only three homes in the U.S. to receive the highest level of recognition from the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living. Hughes Health and Rehabilitation Center in West Hartford, which was started 55 years ago by Dr. Eugene Flaxman and is still owned by him, won the Gold Quality Award. Nationally, only 31 nursing homes have gained the distinction and before this, Manchester Manor Health Care Center and Glen Hill Center in Danbury were the only Connecticut homes to reach the gold level, Matthew V. Barrett, president and CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, said in a press release. Touchpoints at Manchester received a Silver Quality Award, and three Connecticut facilities, Arbors of Hop Brook in Manchester, Lutheran Home of Southbury and Brighton Gardens of Stamford, received the Bronze Quality Award this year. Mark Finkelstein, the administrator and vice president at Hughes Health, said winning the award was years in the making.

nursing program

Tech High School LPN Programs Not Accepting New Applicants, May Close

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Five technical high school programs that prepare students to become licensed practical nurses have stopped taking applications for new students as state officials are debating their future. While no decision has been made to close the programs, Ed Leavy, president of the State Vocational Federation of Teachers, said administrators have been told to stop accepting new students who would have started class in January. “I am obviously concerned about the future of these programs,” he said. “We think these programs are too important to eliminate.”

Leavy said his union will lobby legislators to save the programs, if need be, because they are affordable programs that set people on a solid career path. The union represents about 25 LPN teachers and department heads.

I-Team I-Depth

Acute Drug Shortages Forcing Workarounds In Hospitals

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In hospitals across Connecticut and nationwide, workarounds to compensate for medication shortages are daily routines for treating patients – and health experts say it’s not about to change any time soon. Some acute-care drugs in short supply nationally are antibiotics, antipsychotics, intravenous saline, and morphine, according to the most recent shortage list from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In Connecticut, hospital officials say they are turning to alternative drugs, rationing supplies, or seeking new suppliers to work around the shortages. At St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, Dr. C. Steven Wolf, chief of emergency medicine, said doctors most recently have been dealing with shortages of dextrose, used to treat dehydration and low blood sugar, as well as intravenous saline and other basic medications.

Our Events

Join Us For A Free Community Forum September 29

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Recipes for Healthy Living: Defeating Diabetes
The Conn. Health I-Team, in collaboration with ConnectiCare and the Hispanic Health Council, invites the public to a forum on diabetes, with a focus on healthy eating. Becky Stevens-McGuigan, an executive chef at Billings Forge, will offer a sampling of diabetes-friendly food choices and a cooking demonstration, including recipes. That will be followed by a discussion and question-and-answer session with a panel of experts on the latest developments in preventing and managing diabetes. Thursday, Sept.

Gun Research

Ignorance Is Killing Us

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By 1900, there had already been some three-dozen deaths by motor vehicles. This was at a time when the top speed of the Columbia, made by Hartford-based Pope Manufacturing, was 13 miles an hour. Cars got faster, and ubiquitous. Just a half century later, the number of motor vehicle deaths had reached epidemic proportions, 53,000 and rising. All along, safety features were being added, from turn signals in the ‘20s to padded dashboards in the ‘40s.

HealthyCT

State’s Health Insurance Co-Op Predicts Profit In 2017

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Over a dozen of the cooperative health insurers that started under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have failed, but leaders of Connecticut’s co-op say it is on track to turn a profit next year. “We’re very viable,” said Ken Lalime, CEO of Wallingford-based HealthyCT, a member-run, nonprofit health insurance co-op. “There are a lot of stable pieces of” HealthyCT. The co-op is enduring when others have died off, he said, by strategically adapting to changes in the ACA, and diversifying its portfolio. About a third of its business is insuring individuals, a third is small group policies and a third is large group insurance policies, he said.

Our Events

Join Us For A Free Community Forum, April 7

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Beating Diabetes: Food, Fitness and Focus
The Conn. Health I-Team, in collaboration with ConnectiCare and the Hispanic Health Council, is hosting a panel discussion on the latest developments in early screening and treatment of diabetes, and adopting a healthy lifestyle – with a special appearance by Chef Jay Lewis, who will present a sampling of healthy food choices. Thursday, April 7, 5:00-7:30 PM • Chrysalis Center, 255 Homestead Ave., Hartford • Free on-site parking available • Live Spanish translation provided

WALK-INS WELCOME!! Panelists

Dr. Robert M. Oberstein
Endocrinologist and Medical Director
Diabetes LifeCare, Hartford Hospital

Dr. Jorge Diez
Endocrinologist and Internal Medicine Specialist,
Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center

Elizabeth Caffrey MPH, RD, CDE
Registered Dietitian and Educator
Diabetes LifeCare, Hartford Hospital

Migdalia Texidor-Huertas
Nutrition Educator and Research Assistant,
Hispanic Health Council

Moderator: Diane Alverio
Publisher,
CTLatino News

5:00-6:00 PM: Meet Executive Chef Jay Lewis
Author of “The Gentleman’s Cook Book”

Thanks to our sponsors! Supporters

Media Partners

Special Recognition: This event is supported by a grant from the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Men's Health

It’s Time To Give Men More Birth Control Choices

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For all of recorded history, the contraceptive of choice for men—short of sterilization, withdrawal or abstinence—has been the condom. How ubiquitous are condoms? The federal government says 18 billion condoms will be used worldwide this year alone. They’re sold in latex, lambskin (good for pregnancy prevention, not good for prevention of STDs or HIV), and ribbed with something called “tattoo-inspired textures.”

The choices are dizzying, but only within an extremely small field that involves placing an expandable sheath over an erect penis. Not a single new form of male contraceptives has been introduced on the market in this century—or the last.