Einstein Perspectives Blog • 28th August 2015

How Einstein Will Play Its Part in the Papal Visit

When Pope Francis visits Philadelphia September 26 through 27, Einstein physicians will be at the epicenter of activity throughout the pope’s stay, prepared to deal with many of the emergencies that might arise. Scott Goldstein, DO, director of Tactical Medicine at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia (EMCP), with multiple affiliations in emergency medicine, and disaster medical assistance, will be supervising Einstein’s Physician Support Unit (PSU) at City Hall, where a 50-bed medical station

Personal Blog • 21st August 2015

Family Portrait

Of all the murals that artist Cesar Viveros has created, the 4,239-square-foot mural that will soon adorn the side of the new St. Malachy School in North Philly has the most special meaning. It will commemorate the visit of Pope Francis to Philadelphia. (Photos by me)

Einstein Perspectives Blog • 31st July 2015

Meet Katelyn Schafer, CRNP

Perspectives: Before you came to Einstein Physicians Pennypack, you worked as a pediatric nurse practitioner at a practice in Upper Bucks County. You have a special interest in childhood obesity. Do you see any differences between obesity among chldren in Upper Bucks County and children in Philadelphia's Northeast? Katelyn Schafer: Obesity is truly an epidemic and it does not discriminate. We see childhood obesity in all ages, ethnic groups, and children with different socioeconomic status. Hav

Einstein Perspectives Blog • 21st July 2015

Farmer’s Market Takes Root at Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia

It’s a sweltering day on Tabor Road, but temperatures in the high 80s aren’t keeping eager shoppers away from a brand-new farmer’s market across from Einstein Medical Center Philadelphia (EMCP). People from the neighborhood and scrubs-clad Einstein staffers cluster around two pop-up canopies, picking and choosing from among the wide array of fresh produce spread out across red checkered tablecloths. There was a huge selection: fat New Jersey tomatoes, ripe, deep purple plums, juicy watermelons,

Einstein Perspectives Blog • 16th July 2015

Meet an Einstein Health Care Provider: Sumeet K. Mainigi, M.D.

Perspectives: What’s new in cardiac electrophysiology (diagnosing and treating heart rhythm disorders)? What can be done now that couldn’t be done earlier in the field? Dr. Mainigi: The field has exploded and advanced dramatically in the last few years. We can now very precisely target and destroy arrhythmias, and offer patients effective control or cure of these potentially life-threatening problems. We can really change peoples’ lives. And the best thing about it is that these procedures are

Einstein Perspectives Blog • 10th July 2015

MossRehab Physical Therapists Take to the Field to Play an Ancient Gaelic Sport

Twilight is closing in on a scrubby athletic field toward the rear of Philadelphia’s Northeast High School. Twenty or so young men—and two women—are racing back and forth, wielding what look like canoe paddles in one hand, and slapping a ball back and forth with it. Occasionally, one of those balls goes sailing over a high chain-link fence into traffic on Algon Avenue. What you’re looking at is mayhem, with a fair amount of body contact—but still, there’s clearly a rhythm and structure to it.

Einstein Perspectives Blog • 26th June 2015

How to Stay Safe As the Weather Warms Up

No matter how long and dreadful Philly winters seem to have become, chances are pretty good that the time for snow shoveling injuries is over. OK, seriously, now is the time for illnesses and injuries that are far more typically associated with warm weather than cold weather. “As winter turns into spring, we see illnesses like acute asthma exacerbation triggered by allergies,” says emergency physician Maria Halluska-Handy, MD, medical director of Einstein Medical Center Elkins Park. “Later on,

Einstein Perspectives Blog • 24th June 2015

They Will Surf Again 2015 Makes a Big Splash

It had been a good 10 years since Alysse Einbender had been in the ocean. That was before the spinal stroke in 2004 that left her paralyzed below the ribcage. On Sunday, she was back on the board——riding a wave back to the beach at Wildwood Crest, enwreathed in a cloud of spray, with a broad, excited smile on her face. The board soared through a chute of volunteers ready to leap to her aid if she ran into trouble. “It was great,” she said after her ride, the smile still very much in place. “It

Einstein Perspectives Blog • 29th May 2015

After 45 Years at Einstein, Award-Winning Nurse is Still Blazing a Trail

Nida Quirong Jones came to the United States straight out of nursing school in the Philippines in December 1970, not expecting to stay long. “There were severe nursing shortages in the United States in the ‘60s and ‘70s, and they were recruiting from other countries—England, Germany, Ireland, France, and there were five openings in Philadelphia,” she says. After checking out the ads in a nursing magazine, Jones wrote letters to health care facilities in three states that were looking for nurse

Einstein Perspectives Blog • 27th May 2015

Moments of More: "I’m a People Person. I Do My Best to Help Them.”

Somewhere out there, there’s a family that named their baby Anthony, because of the thoughtfulness of one man: Einstein security services officer Anthony Lucas. Tall and solidly built, his blue uniform shirt and slacks always perfectly pressed, a walkie-talkie and a ring of keys affixed to his broad leather belt, Lucas always has a warm smile and words of welcome as he opens the door for employees and visitors at Einstein’s Plaza Olney building. “I feel like everyone who comes through could be

Einstein Perspectives Blog • 11th May 2015

They Will Surf Again: A Custom Board to Help Persons With Disabilities Catch a Wave at the Jersey Shore

The surfboard is totally awesome, and the dude who built it is really stoked. Nine feet long, 22 inches at its widest point, and three-and-a-half to five inches thick, this board is big and sturdy. It has to be. Board maker Luke Alvarez painstakingly crafted it in his shop in Tuckerton, N.J., for a specific purpose: to give persons with disabilities an opportunity to catch a wave and rush to shore with the roar of the water echoing in their ears. That day will come on Sunday, June 21, when per

Einstein Perspectives Blog • 1st May 2015

Tapping and Swiping—Even Before They're Walking

You’ve probably seen it: Young children intently thumbing away on smartphones as their parents do something else, like talk over dinner in a restaurant. What you probably didn’t know is that nearly 75 percent of those kids are using smartphones, tablets and other media devices before they reach the age of 2—and many of them are tapping away before they’ve taken their first steps. Hilda Kabali, M.D., a third-year pediatrics resident at Einstein Medical Center, observed digital device behavior a

Einstein Perspectives Blog • 28th April 2015

Unstoppable: Global Abilities Wheelchair Racing Team Accepts the MossRehab Challenge in the Broad Street Run

When you attend the Broad Street Run on Sunday, May 3, keep your eyes peeled for the wheelchairs that look like long, skinny tricycles. And then focus your attention on the determined athletes propelling them along. If they don’t redefine what the word “disability” means in your mind, then nothing will. Those dogged competitors are all members of the Global Abilities Race Team, sponsored in the Broad Street Run this year by MossRehab, driving home the institution’s creed—Challenge Accepted—in

RWJF Culture of Health Blog • 1st July 2014

Bedtime Story: Learn about the importance of reading to children

Our heads told us that discipline needed to be consistent. But in the end, our hearts always gave in. And so we would return to our comfy bedtime routine, which, I confess, we treasured as much as Sarah did. One of us would snuggle up next to Sarah’s warm, jammy-clad body, and read through her favorites: “Make Way for Ducklings.” “Harold and the Purple Crayon.” “Corduroy.” Of course, the timeless “Goodnight Moon.” And so many more. We came to feel that we were on a first-name basis with Margare

RWJF Culture of Health Blog • 13th January 2014

The Smoking Generation

A brief walk down memory lane seems in order. I never succumbed to the siren song of smoking, but for millions of folks in my parents' generation, lighting up seemed like a harmless, pleasurable, sociable thing to do. I didn't believe it. If smoking was OK, why wasn't I allowed to smoke until I was 18? I worried about my parents smoking, but it didn't seem like the kind of conversation an 8- or 9-year-old kid could have with a grownup. But then, in January 1964, when I was 12, Surgeon General

Newsworks.org • 1st August 2011

Imagine trying yoga high in the trees — NewsWorks

It's 8:30 on a luminous Sunday morning in mid-July at the Morris Arboretum, the University of Pennsylvania's 92-acre living museum of trees and botanic gardens along the western fringes of Philadelphia's Chestnut Hill neighborhood. From the visitors' center, a narrow dirt path leads downhill into a lush forest. In the canopy, sunlight slices through the lacework of branches. Against the background buzz of cicadas, a choir of birds—robins, tanagers, flycatchers and more—greets the day with chirr