B.U. Bridge is published by the Boston University Office of University Relations.

Contact Us

Staff

New York Times: BMC turns to lawyers for a cure

Doctors report all-too-familiar scenarios: a child with asthma sent home to an apartment full of roaches and mold, the parents of an anemic toddler told to buy more and healthier food even though they are strapped for money, babies who live in unheated apartments brought in repeatedly with lung ailments. But at Boston Medical Center -- a hospital that treats more poor people than any other in Massachusetts -- pediatricians got so tired of such situations that they decided to try a radical solution: they got their own lawyers.

"We're trying to think out of the box," says Barry Zuckerman, a MED associate professor and BMC's chief of pediatrics, in the May 16 New York Times. "I want an impact on the whole child, since you can't separate out a child's organ functions from the rest of his body and the context of his environment."

Lawyers of the Family Advocacy Program at the hospital do things like pressure recalcitrant landlords, help families apply for food stamps, and persuade insurance companies to pay for baby formula. The program, which has run at BMC since 1993 and is continuing to explore ways of helping poor families, is paid for mainly by city money for welfare-to-work transitions.

American Health Line: The West Wing's MS subplot gets SPH prof response

On the television drama The West Wing, fictional U.S. President Josiah Barlett is embroiled in controversy over his failure to disclose that he has multiple sclerosis, which highlights the dilemma faced by many MS patients regarding whether to reveal their condition to employers. MS, a disease of the central nervous system, can cause widely varying symptoms, including blindness and numbness or paralysis, but can also be in remission for years. Wendy Mariner, SPH professor of health law, says in the May 23 American Health Line that there are "few effective laws protecting MS patients . . . from being fired" because court rulings find for the employer "more than 90 percent of the time." MS advocates hope the show will help draw attention to the disease and to the fact that people with the condition can perform their duties.

New York Times: Prof says food industry should be responsible for reducing heart disease

In a May 23 letter to the editor in the New York Times, Alan Cohen, SMG professor of health policy and management, writes that while he agrees with a letter-writer who opined that the pharmaceutical industry must share in the responsibility for reducing heart disease along with patients, doctors, and the government, the food industry should also be held accountable. "The consumption of high-cholesterol foods is an American pastime," he says. "Shouldn't these purveyors of artery-clogging foods also share in the burden of reducing heart disease? Or will we simply chalk it up to poor dietary choices by individuals? Perhaps the day will soon come when, having grown tired of the disease burden associated with poor diet, we begin to hold the food companies responsible for the effects of their products, in much the same way that we now hold tobacco companies responsible for the lethal effects of theirs."

Boston Globe: Wiesel reveals his road not taken

In the May 28 Boston Globe, some prominent Bostonians are asked, "If you hadn't gone into this line of work, what would you be doing instead?" Elie Wiesel (Hon.'74), Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, UNI professor, and Holocaust survivor, answers, "If there had been no war? I certainly would have remained a teacher of the Talmud in the small village [Sighet, Romania] I was born in and written commentaries on the Bible."

Entertainment Weekly: David E. Kelley scores an A-

David E. Kelley (LAW'83) gave a convocation address at the School of Law that gets an A- in the June 8 issue of Entertainment Weekly: "Sometimes silly but generally endearing, the Ally McBeal creator manages to work in both a challenge to live an ethical life and a yarn about a Jewish scholar and a hooker."

"In The News" is compiled by Mark Toth in the Office of Public Relations.

8 June 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations