Blogs

Greetings Colleagues – It’s the most wonderful time of the year…new students, new semester, new courses! I hope you are having a great start this fall. Here are four great opportunities for you and your program. First – Get Involved in AUPHA Strategic Planning! Your board continues to define the strategic direction and future of AUPHA. We are in the process of forming new committees that will explore future activities for AUPHA, as well as review and make recommendations for existing activities. These committees will include board members and other volunteers from AUPHA programs. Please watch for ways to get involved. We are trying to find ...

I recently attended the MBAA International meeting in Chicago. One of the member groups of the MBAA is the Business and Health Administration Association (BHAA). The BHAA conducted a number of sessions on a wide variety of subjects that presented many interesting discussion topics. Two that I found to be most fascinating were trying to organize responses to national natural tragedies, and the truncation of outcomes associated with health care reform. The session on Social Justice and Sustainability contained a presentation given by Dr. Vladimir Krcmery of St. Elizabeth University. He spoke of his experiences in providing assistance to Haiti after the earthquake ...

The Health Care Reform Bill was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. While many had hoped that this signing would bring the debate over healthcare reform to an end, it became readily apparent that this issue will continue for months, and probably years, into the future. There exists a lot of uncertainty as to what the law (H.R. 4872, The Health Care & Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010) will cost and what changes will accrue to both employers and employees. Similarly, there are additional concerns relative to mandates and the permanence of the law; will it be overturned by judicial fiat or by subsequent Congressional sessions. ...

This is my last note as chair of the AUPHA Board of Directors. For those of you who have been following my notes, it should come as no surprise that I immediately thought of Heraclitus’s statement that it is impossible to step “twice” into the same river. Of course, that started me wondering if that was really what he had written. As best I can surmise, he also said, “Upon those who step into the same rivers, different and again different waters flow.” From this statement at least two philosophical strands emerge: 1) change as a constant – what Heraclitus, rightly or wrongly said, is probably best known as advocating; and 2) reality as a changing permanence ...

We live in interesting times. On one hand, national health care reform in the US – or at least reform to make financial access close to universal – seems likely. As I learned in my recent travels overseas, foreign health professionals and medical educators view this as a hopeful sign for the US. On the other hand, a continued economic recession in the US and elsewhere adversely affects state budgets and personal spending. Longer term, an aging population and the burden of chronic diseases threaten a US and other health systems fixated on treating acute illnesses. For AUPHA members and their programs, these interesting times pose an interesting dynamic. ...

J.D. Salinger’s famous and only full length novel, A Catcher in the Rye, was controversial when published in 1951. Salinger’s recent death brought back memories to me of reading it in the 1960s, and some reflections about what it means for us today. The title of the book comes from Holden’s fantasy, which is ironically associated with Robert Burns’ poem, Comin Thro the Rye. Ironic, because Burn’s poem is about love and chance encounters. Near the end of the novel, Holden tells his sister, Phoebe: "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, ...