Flushing Hospital Holds Conferences: Some Seasoned and Some New

Two separate events, a symposium on vaccines and a behavioral conference, both held at Flushing Hospital, offered a variety of educational opportunities to MediSys clinical staff as members of the community.

On October 25th Flushing Hospital held its very first Vaccine Symposium. The conference was organized by Dr. Deborah Asnis, Director of Infection Control, Dr. Robert Crupi, Chairman Emergency Medicine and Ambulatory Care, and Frances Grochulski, CME Coordinator, Performance Improvement as a way to educate and communicate to participants the importance of Influenza, HPV, Zoster, and Pertussis vaccines.

The half day symposium featured distinguished speakers from the Department of Health, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, the VA Health System/SUNY Downstate Medical School, and Winthrop University/SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine.

Over 200 participants attended and approximately 85 MediSys employees received their flu vaccine—just in time for the start of the flu season!

Two weeks later, on November 9th, more than 180 participants from the MediSys Health Network and Flushing Community attended Flushing Hospital’s Sixth Annual Behavioral Conference, entitled “The Addictions: An Interdisciplinary Challenge for Trans-Cultural Communities.”

The conference addressed the challenge of reducing substance abuse and sought a response from the  Flushing community, one that would see addiction as a chronic condition, similar to other diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer.

Two notable leaders highlighted the conference's morning session: special invited speaker Dr. David Rosin, the newly appointed Executive Deputy Commissioner for Mental Hygiene, Division of Mental Hygiene Services for the NYCDOHMH and keynote speaker Dr. Mark Galanter, Professor of Psychiatry & Director Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, NYU School of Medicine.

Dr. Rosin’s topic was “Organizing Communities to Meet the Public Health Challenge of Addictions,” while Dr. Galanter spoke on “Network Therapy of Addiction.”

Dr. Seeth Vivek, Chairman of Psychiatry, MediSys Behavioral Health Network, moderated the afternoon Integrated Symposium. Three Medisys Behavioral Health faculty members made presentations and responded to questions during the panel discussion: Dr. Joseph Cannavo, Medical Director/Unit Chief, Chemical Dependence Unit, Dr. Daniel Chen, Assistant Chairman, and Dr. Ira Frankel, Administrator, all of the Department of Psychiatry & Addiction Services at the Flushing Campus.  Dr. Frankel, Chair of the Conference Planning Committee explained, “Each annual Behavioral Health Conference serves to improve our service for the Flushing Community.”