At an event attended by more than 500 health care, business, and community leaders, United Hospital Fund paid tribute October 7 to Steven R. Swartz, Lynne Holden, MD, J. Barclay Collins II, and Eileen Sullivan-Marx, PhD, RN, FAAN for their efforts to improve health and health care through information and technology, a more diverse workforce, nurse leadership, and professional-volunteer partnerships.
The annual gala at Cipriani 42nd Street raised almost $1.6 million and marked the opening of UHF’s 141st fundraising campaign in support of the organization’s work to build a more effective and equitable health care system for all New Yorkers.
Steven R. Swartz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hearst, received UHF’s Health Care Leadership Award from UHF president Anthony Shih, MD for raising the standard of excellence in patient care through health care information and technology. A year after taking the helm at Hearst in 2013, he announced Hearst Health, a new division to encompass and further develop the company’s health information businesses, providing next-generation clinical decision support, and communicating a common mission across the clinical, pharmacy, home and hospice care, and health insurance markets. Hearst Health now includes five businesses and a venture fund focused on health information technology, all with the goal of improving health care safety, quality, and cost-effectiveness.
Lynne Holden, MD, co-founder and President of Mentoring in Medicine, was awarded the Distinguished Community Service Award by Roger W. Ferguson Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA, for her leadership in co-founding Mentoring in Medicine. Dr. Holden, an emergency room physician at Montefiore Health System and a professor of emergency medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, started Mentoring in Medicine in the Bronx in 2007 to help disadvantaged and minority students enter the health care professions through mentoring and academic programs staffed by more than 1500 volunteer health and science professionals. To date, 289 Mentoring in Medicine students have entered medical school and the organization has expanded to 16 cities.
Eileen M. Sullivan-Marx, PhD, RN, FAAN, Dean of NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and President of the American Academy of Nursing, was awarded a Special Tribute by Dr. Shih as one of the nation’s most distinguished nursing leaders, researchers, and educators, with a long history of promoting innovation in primary and geriatric care. She also pioneered national payment reforms for nurse practitioners. Since taking the helm at NYU in 2012, she has turned NYU Rory Meyers into one of the top nursing research institutions in the country. On October 1 Dr. Sullivan-Marx became president of the prestigious American Academy of Nursing, where she will work closely with the Academy’s 2,700 Fellows to promote nursing and patient-centered care.
J. Barclay Collins II, Chairman Emeritus of UHF, was awarded a Special Tribute by UHF board chairman John Simons, and received a standing ovation for his 35-year commitment to UHF. A corporate lawyer and former executive vice president and general counsel at the Hess Corporation, Mr. Collins joined UHF’s board in 1984 and served as chairman from 2006 until this past June, lending his financial acumen, legal prowess, and personal commitment to help UHF remain at the forefront of efforts to address critical challenges facing New York’s health care delivery system.
See more photos from the evening and read the press release.