Celebrating Greater Hartford’s Health Care Heroes

As we prepare to close the books on 2011 and look ahead to 2012, it is a good time to reflect on the year and on a special group dedicated not only to caring for others, but to making lives better.

Stem cell research, cardiovascular perfusion, traumatology, health care in schools, children’s advocacy, communities of care… just a few of the dazzling array of specialties covered by the devoted group of health care professionals honored on December 6 as 2011 Hartford Business Journal Health Care Heroes.

Our heroes were nominated by those who know their work the best — co-workers, clients, even parents — and selected by independent judges, based on an established criteria. They share a common passion for the services they provide and for the life-changing impacts they have on the lives of others.

And they do all this with a genuine sense of humility.

We have a physician who was instrumental in establishing the state’s only critical care helicopter service, a nurse turned CEO who spends her days working to provide access to adequate health care for area kids and their families, and a doctor researching and advancing our knowledge of a rare genetic disorder.

We have an entire company dedicated to keeping heart patients out of the hospital, a nurse who is in essence a mother to struggling teen girls, and an executive devoted to helping patients navigate the complicated health care maze. There’s an attorney committed to bringing legal services to low-income children and their families and one of just 3,500 cardiovascular perfusionists in the entire country who happens to work right in your backyard.

The Hartford Business Journal has reported on a number of trends in medicine this year — from electronic medical records to health care reform to continued hospital consolidation.

Whatever 2012 has in store for health care, we can rest assured of the continued best efforts of our health care heroes — past, present and future.

Congratulations, heroes and thank you.

 — John Lahtinen
Special Projects Editor,
Hartford Business Journal

Meet This Year’s Winners:

Advancements in Healthcare – Innovation

Marc Lalande, Professor and Chairman, Genetics

and Developmental Biology, UConn Health Center

Advancements in Healthcare – Prevention

Qualidigm

Corporate Achievement – Innovation

Deb Gundersen, nurse, NAFI CT

and

Ida Schnipper, managing partner, Health Champion

Community Service Advocacy/Policy

Jay Sicklick, Director, Medical-Legal Partnership,

Center for Children’s Advocacy

Health Care Staff

David Rosinski, Director of Cardiovascular Perfusion, UConn Health Center

Nurse

Debbie Poerio, President and CEO,

Integrated Health Services, Inc.

Physician

Lenworth Jacobs, Director of Trauma and Emergency Medicine, Hartford Hospital

Volunteer

David Dyson, volunteer-event manager,

Tabor House

Click HERE for information about the judges