Author: Anita M. Harris

Georgia O’Keeffe Inspirational at the Peabody Essex

Cambridge writer Anita Harris felt inspired by the Georgia O’keeffe show at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA–which exhibits the work of a groundbreaking artist who lived and worked into her late 90s, and whose work remains impactful, today.

Still thinking about the fabulous Georgia O’Keeffe show I saw last Sunday at the Peabody Essex Museum, in Salem, MA. “Georgia O’Keeffe: Art, Image, Style,”  is a retrospective going back to O’Keeffe’s high school years. It continues through her experiences in Chicago, Texas, New York City, Lake George, New Mexico and beyond her lifetime, to the present day.

 

 

The exhibit  features not only her art work through those years, but also year-book entries, photos of and by O’Keeffe, video of a conversation in which she says she was lucky that her work coincided with her time and was liked but that her paintings might have been better if she’d remained unknown.

Central to the show is the distinctive clothing she designed and wore–presented in relation to her paintings.

 

 

 

 

The show includes video from a 2018 fashion show in which models prance on a runway. wearing styles like those originated by OKeefe.(immediately below)

My friend E remarked on O’Keeffe as a feminist force. But while O’Keeffe was a ground breaker in the art world and is sometimes referred to as “the mother of abstract art,” a PEM commentary points out that she insisted throughout her career that she did not want to be considered a female artist…but simply an artist.

I did wonder what would have happened if famed New York City photographer Alfred Stieglitz, 30 years her senior, had not seen her work when she was a young artist and championed it–and her; if she had not moved to New York and married him; if he had not taken and shown photograph after photograph of her; if she had not had the safety and freedom afforded by Stieglitz and his family wealth in NY and Lake George. But an example of the early commercial artwork (left), on which she embarked to supplement her Texas teaching salary, makes me certain she would have become renowned on her own.

 

 

While I love most of O’Keeffe’s  paintings, I’m less enamoured of her fashion, which the show presents as an element of her artwork.  In my view, it seems to have become more traditionally masculine–with chunky-looking  black suits ordered from a men’s clothier in Hong Kong– as she moved on in life.(Or, as women’s societal roles changed?) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve  seen quite a few O’Keeffe shows over the years..several in New York, and one in Glens Falls, NY, near Lake George– but this is the first I’ve seen that incorporates and integrates so many aspects of her life.

I would have liked to have been told a bit more about O’Keeffe’s childhood and family and about her relationship with Stieglitz, but then, there’s Wikipedia for that. All in all, I found the exhibit of an artist who worked well into her 90s enriching and inspirational.

 

Should also mention the wonderful docent and ceramic artist/jewelry maker who told me that the unlabelled photos were taken by O’Keefe and encouraged me and other visitors to share our comments and photos on Instagram.  Also, btw, the PEM  cafeteria serves the richest, thickest hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

Georgia O’Keefe, Art, Image, Style will be at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, Dec. 1-April 1, 2018. 

–Anita Harris
Anita M. Harris is a writer, photographer and communications consultant  basedin Cambridge, MA. She is the author of Ithaca Diaries, Coming of Age in the 1960s, and Broken Patterns: Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a PR and content marketing firm based in Kendall Square. :

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Wearables & Robots: Can Digital Innovation Transform Health Care? Part II

Health Science writer Anita Harris reports on digital innovations aimed at transforming a troubled US health care system. In this blog, part II of a series, she describes wearables, robots, monitors, and several startups with IT to improve and cut costs of long term and health caredelivery systems. 

Wearables, robots, monitors, and IT systems for long-term care and  delivery systems. 

Part I Overview, Watson, Analytics
Part II digital devices, long term care.
Part III Apps, devices, roadblocks

At a recent health systems innovation organized the MIT/Sloan MIT  Initiative for Health Systems Innovation (HSI), experts from a variety of fields described current and envisioned methods for streamlining, personalizing and cutting the costs of health care in the US.  Among them were : wearables; robots; sophisticated monitors;  and digital methods to better coordinate communication and care.

 

Long Term care
On a panel covering digital innovation and long-term care, Thomas Grape, founder, chairman and CEO of Benchmark Senior Living,  described a variety of digital devices and methods used in his more than 60 facilities and elsewhere to improve care,  streamline operations and  cut costs amid a projected shortage of elder care workers.

Among digital innovations for patient care are:

  • “Real time” monitoring and location systems to keep track of patients in dementia wards
  • Wearables (such as vests or bracelets) with sensors that monitor movement to prevent falls
  • Virtual and augmented reality devices such as “Wayback,” designed to enhance the experiences of individuals in early stages of mental decline—for example, by allowing them to “visit” faraway places or feel that they are attending historic events.
  • Robots, such as”Jibo,” to keep patients company and entertain them. The robot, Jibo is “powered” by face and voice recognition. According to the Jibo Web site, the robot “remembers” people and builds “relationships” with everyone “he” meets.  Engineered by “character designers,” the robot has a “3-axis motor system” and “the moves” to match the personality of the human it is interacting with.
  • Monitors that respond catastrophic events and proceed along“critical paths”: for example, by calling an ambulance and transferring a nursing home resident’s file even before a nursing home knows a patient has fallen and needs to go to the hospital.

Digital innovations for facilities and operations aimed, largely, at reducing staffing costs include:

  • Monitors to measure light levels in hallways
  • Exoskeletons,  worn by staff to cut the number of aides needed to lift and assist patients
  • Robotic machines to help people in and out of chairs and toilets
  • Automation of repetitive” back-office” business tasks.

 

Healthcare Delivery and Health Management

IT-Based Startups
On a panel showcasing three young companies, entrepreneurs described new methods for streamlining and coordinating healthcare delivery and management.

  • Elliot Cohen, founder and chief technology officer of Pillpack, described his company’s “behind the scenes” effort to make managing and taking medication a “delightful” experience for patients. “Pillpack” uses information technology to coordinate physicians’ prescriptions and insurance companies in order to prepackage and send medication to patients exactly as it will be taken.
  • Liz Boehm, research director of the Vocera Communications Experience Innovation Network explained that her company is focused on “unified clinical communications.” Vocera employs digital technology to align and manage workflow by connecting  patients, clinicians, and clinical systems.
  • Health Reveal offers “a cloud-based digital health solution” to detect, monitor, and recommend prevention options for patients at risk for developing full-blown chronic disease, according to Christine Tsien Silvers, MD, the company’s chief medical officer. The system, paid for by insurers, includes not only purchasers, payers, providers and accountable care organizations but also patients, (who receive financial incentives for adherence to recommendations), pharmaceutical companies and device manufacturers, Silvers said.

In Part 3, I’ll describe promising mobile apps for behavioral health; personalized care and long-distance care as well as new state models to integrate community, health and social systems so as to better track and care for patients. I’ll also report on roadblocks to change.

LINKS TO
Part I Overview, Watson, Analytics
Part II digital devices, long term care.
Part III Apps, devices, roadblocks

 

Videotapes and photos of the conference, held November 29, 2017,  are available at http://mitsloan.mit.edu/alumni/events/2017-cambridge-health-conference/

–Anita M. Harris

Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant focusing on health, science and technology.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a content and digital marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA.

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Women’s March Photos, Cambridge 2018

Writer Anita Harris enjoyed the spirit and creativity exhibited at the 2018 Women’s March in Cambridge, MA. Here, she shares some of her favorite signs.

Had a great time at this year’s women’s march…Much good cheer; great signage, and a wide range of participants. At about 2 pm, half-way through, a police officer told me that the crowd estimate was 4000…but he believed the number of participants was twice that, and I’d guess even a few more. (Given that there were only about 10 porta-potties, I’d also guess that was many more than the organizers expected). The sound system left something to be desired (from my perch on a monument, I could see the speaker but not hear an understandable word) but I much enjoyed the creativity of the signage and enthusiasm of the attendees.

–Anita Harris
Anita M. Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. She is the author of Broken Patterns, Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity  

and Ithaca Diaries, Coming of Age in the 1960s. 

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a pr and content marketing firm  in Cambridge.

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Free chocolate tasting Sat Jan 27: Harvard Square!

Anita Harris is looking forward to her second Harvard Square chocolate tasting, tho she has qualms about sharing the info as last year she stood in the chocolate line for quite some time. It was worth the wait, though, she says.

This just in From the Harvard Square Business Association…Yes, I stood in line last year and will likely do so again! 
–Anita Harris

The Legendary 10th Taste of Chocolate Festival in Harvard SquareFriday, January 26th – January 28th, 2018

January 17, 2018 (Cambridge, MA) The wait is over!  The Harvard Square Business Association is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated annual Taste of Chocolate Festival.  The highlight of this beloved weekend extravaganza is the free Chocolate Tasting Event on Saturday, January 27th from 1pm – 2pm.  Please join us on Brattle Plaza (in front of Brattle Square Florist at 31 Brattle Street) for heavenly chocolate treats from some of Harvard Square’s most loved restaurants!Come early!  This celebration of all things chocolate attracts hundreds of chocoholics!  Bring your dancing shoes (or boots!  It’s a great way to burn off those calories you will consume!) – once again, our friends Grooversity will warm the crowd with their infectious and heart stopping percussion combining traditional Brazilian grooves like Samba and Axe with Funk, Rock, Jazz and even Hip Hop.

 Special thanks to our sponsor, Getaround for supporting this event.
Salsa, Merengue and Reggaeton your way around Winter Carnival with some of Wellbridge Athletic Club’s finest Zumba instructors!  Join in the hottest fitness dance craze right here in Harvard Square – see what all the fun is about, and shake off those winter blues!  1:00pm – 1:30pm on Palmer Street, right by the chocolate!
In addition, chocolate promotions and sweet deals are on full display all weekend throughout the Square.  Businesses looking forward to welcoming you to the sweetest weekend of the year include:
For more information about this event and all events in Harvard Square, please visit harvardsquare.com.
Anita Harris is a writer, communications consultant and chocolate lover who lives and works in Cambridge.
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and content marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA. 
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Can Digital Innovation Transform Health Care? Part I

At a recent MIT/Sloan Management School conference on Health Systems Innovation, MIT-Sloan Professor Retzef Levi laid out problems besetting a troubled US health care system. He emphasizing the need to “sow seeds now”  for a “visionary, futuristic system”  to reduce future illness–and health care costs. The conference featured experts from health, science, business and industrial fields who described promising technologies and roadblocks to change. Part I in this series of blogs describes some current and potential uses of artificial intelligence and machine learning–including IBM’s Watson. Part II lays out potential solutions in health care delivery and long term care. Part III focuses on issues and efforts in behavioral and population health–and roadblocks to change.

Imagine this: a city homeless shelter serves breakfast and dinner, but not lunch. Hungry residents regularly go to the fire station next door, complain of chest pain, get taken by  ambulance to the hospital ER where they are evaluated, at high cost, given lunch, and then transported back to the homeless shelter in time for dinner.

Such was a scenario laid out recently at the MIT Sloan School as an example from an inefficient US social and health care system that cannot adequately keep track of patients, manage health of the poor, or control costs.

The scenario was described by Jason Helgerson, Medicaid Director for the New York State Health Department, at a day-long conference entitled “Health Systems Innovation.”  At the November 29 conference,  experts from industry, government, science, medicine and academe laid out some of US health care’s daunting problems, along with new visions and hoped-for solutions —many powered by digital innovation.

In introducing the sessions, which were organized by the MIT Sloan Initiative for Health Systems Innovation (HSI), moderator Jay Levine  pointed out that, today, there is more uncertainty regarding health care than at any time since the enactment of Medicare in 1965—a result of “overwhelming” political turbulence and concerns about health insurance and a tax plan that could upend the health industry and lead to huge, unsustainable losses in health delivery. Levine is retired principal of ECG Management Consultants, Inc.

 Retzef Levi,  an MIT/Sloan management professor whose department hosts HSI, outlined burgeoning health issues that accompany an aging US population. He emphasized the need to “sow seeds now”  for a “visionary, futuristic system”  to prevent disease  and know who is at risk in order to reduce future illness.

Such a system would  integrate local, state, and national systems, medical  and behavioral disciplines, primary,  specialty and community care, Retsef said.  Providers would be paid for performance rather than tasks undertaken. There would be a workforce sufficient to handle the nation’s long term care needs, personalize diagnosis and treatment. The system would make full use of  digital health innovations such as big data, analytics, sophisticated devices and mobile apps without losing the best aspects of human care.

After Levi’s remarks, Levine asked, “ in light of huge current losses in the system, where does the money come from to fix it?”

Panelists at the day long meeting never fully answered that question, but they did lay out a variety of promising digital approaches that could lead toward transformation, as well as roadblocks to change.

Analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence
In a panel on “Machine Learning in surgery and cancer”, MIT PhD Candidates Jack Dunn and Daisy Zhou described analytic tools, based largely on longitudinal patient records,  that they are developing  to predict how long an individual surgical patient is likely to live, with what quality of life, if certain decisions are made.  Such tools, which evaluate “nuanced “ signals and  make use of “decision trees,” are aimed at helping doctors decide on treatment plans. Under current treatment guidelines, Zhou said, many doctors tend to “overestimate” prognoses, which can diminish patients’ quality of life and increase medical costs.

Dusty Mojumdar, PhD, IBM vice president and chief marketing officer for an IBM artificial intelligence (AI) system that reads, learns, understands and interacts with humans. Named “Watson,” after IBM’s first president, Thomas Watson, the system is now used, in health care, to: combat a major shortage of radiologists; predict whether nodules on individuals’ lungs will become malignant; develop new targets for ALS drugs, predict hypoglycemic events for diabetics; rank treatment plans and options for seven cancers, and match patients to clinical trials.

Artificial intelligence is also  being used to evaluate what one speaker termed an “explosion “of health data—which is reported in some 7000 new health care publications per day, and which doubles every 73 days, according to Mojumdar.  Several massive health systems are employing  artificial intelligence to co-ordinate electronic medical records—using “text analysis” and “pattern matching” to “catalog” patients with similar health conditions in order to evaluate  and predict outcomes of particular treatments.

In September, IBM made a 10-year, $240 million investment to create the MIT–IBM Watson AI Lab to  carry out fundamental AI research aimed at propelling scientific breakthroughs that unlock the potential of AI.

In Part II, I’ll share panelists’ information about a variety of digital devices and methods already in use to help streamline and personalize long-term care and health care delivery.

 

LINKS TO:
Part I Overview, Watson, analytics
Part II digital devices, long term care.
Part III Apps, devices, roadblocks

Videotapes and photos of the conference, held November 29, 2017,  are available at http://mitsloan.mit.edu/alumni/events/2017-cambridge-health-conference/

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant specializing in health, science and technology.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a content, PR and digital marketing firm based in Cambridge, MA.

 

 

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Dick Pirozzolo Review: Power, Strategy, the US and the South China Sea

International communications expert Dick Pirozzolo reviews Great Powers, Grand Strategies, a new  book urging that the United States play a strong diplomatic role in the Pacific and project naval power as a stalwart against China’s efforts to expand that nation’s influence worldwide. 

“We’re going to war in the South China Sea … no doubt.’’
—Steve Bannon, former Trump policy advisor.

Great Powers, Grand Strategies, a new  book edited by policy expert Anders Corr, PhD, urges that the United States play a diplomatic role in the Pacific and project naval power as a stalwart against China’s efforts to expand that nation’s influence worldwide. 

The South China Sea has been a churning cauldron of controversy over Paracel and Spratly Islands  since the third century BC, when what is now the Peoples Republic of China claimed the islands for themselves.

In recent times, armed battles between China and other claimants of the islands and surrounding waterways have become concerning—particularly when it comes to the new role Vietnam is playing as a U.S. ally in the effort to maintain the balance of power in the region.

The region has been largely ignored by the US, which tends to focus on the Middle East.  Of late, the White House has been pressuring China to tamp down North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, making it difficult to confront Xi, the Chinese leader, over his aspirations in Southeast Asia.

Six months ago, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon stated bluntly in an interview. ‘We’re going to war in the South China Sea … no doubt.’’

Amidst the controversy, which has sparked deadly conflict between Chinese warships and Philippine and Vietnamese commercial and military vessels, comes Great Powers, Grand Strategies: the New Game in the South China Sea, a book to be released on January 15 by the Naval Institute Press. 

The volume, written by a group of foreign policy and diplomacy authorities and edited by Corr,  examines China’s desire to project its power in this vital region for shipping, fishing, and oil exploration as part of a strategy aimed at projecting power and influence worldwide. Corr is founder and CEO of Corr Analytics in New York, which helps governments and businesses evaluate strategic and international political risks as part of their decision-making process. 

In the book, Corr maintains that Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and other Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with a stake in maintaining peaceful, multifaceted trade relations with China are being blackmailed by China’s overreach, while  the United States needs to  maintain its Naval presence in the Pacific or cede American influence and power to China.

  “This book is the first to focus on major power grand strategies including economic, diplomatic, and military strategies, and their interrelationships so that we can explore how global actors are, on the one hand, contributing to the solution and, on the other hand, perpetuating conflict,” he explains.

Anders Corr, PhD

 Corr cites China’s actions as ample reason for the US Navy to maintain its cautionary presence in the Pacific, which he regards as, “part of a global system of defense of not only the United States but its allies and values, which include international law, democracy, and human rights. To criticize the United States deployment in the Pacific as offensive without geographic context ignores the global picture and principles the United States is defending.

 Corr calls into question China’s disputed claims to the Spratly Islands and sea lanes in the South China Sea and its maneuvering to control the territory militarily. After having established its boot print in theglobal system of defense of not only the United States but its allies and values, which include international law, democracy, and human rights. To criticize the United States deployment in the Pacific as offensive without geographic context ignores the global picture and principles the United States is defending.

 “Viewing China’s presence in the South China Sea as defensive against U.S. forward deployment ignores China’s similar offensive actions in the East China Sea and Himalayan region of India, ” Corr adds. He decries China’s suppression of democracy, human rights, and international law in Asia and abroad and its efforts to remake global governance to its own advantage rather than on principles of democracy, stating, “China’s South China Sea actions are offensive when viewed in this global context.”

The volume assembles the thinking of foreign policy authorities Bill Hayton, Gordon Chang, Bernard Cole, James Fanell, and others who examine the conflict in the context of a global big picture.

As editor, Corr juxtaposes the grand strategies of the great powers to determine the likely outcomes of the dispute, and suggests ways to defuse tensions that are likely to spill over to other regions.

 Corr has visited all South China Sea claimant countries, undertaking research in Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Brunei. He has also conducted analysis for USPACOM, CENTCOM, and NATO, including work in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.

[Great Powers, Grand Strategies, China & the Asia Pacific ( Naval Institute Press, January 15, 2018.   336 pp, Hardcover & eBook $34.95, ISBN: 978-1-68247-235-4]

Dick Pirozzolo is managing director of Pirozzolo Company Public Relations, an international corporate communications firm based in Boston. He coauthored “Escape from Saigon, a novel focusing on the last month of Vietnam War, in 1975.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winningconten digital marketing and content strategy firm based in Cambridge, MA–of which Pirozzolo is a member. 

 

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