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Health and Wellness Back to Volume 12 

Health and Wellness
By David Finn

The sculpture by Ernst Barlach and the quotation by Nelson Mandela introduce our Health and Wellness issue of MOVE! Barlach shows a man standing with crutches under his arms, looking upward with determination in his face; he wants to make the most of his life despite his infirmity. Mandela admires that positive attitude and feels that the glory of mankind is facing debilities with strength and determination. Those are insightful messages for the theme of this issue.

We begin with Corporate Social Responsibility in a Changing World by Dan Vasella, CEO of Novartis and a long-time Ruder Finn client. He describes his company's philosophy and explains why he feels a need to not only be accountable to stockholders but also to serve the needs of society. He believes companies should act with both their brains and their hearts.

Two Tales of One Patient are told by Scott Schneider and Justin R. Buchbinder, who describe how healthcare can change over ten years. First, a 35-year old man with the flu today may take days to go to a doctor and a pharmacy for help. Ten years later, the same man with the flu will be able to get all the help he needs immediately online.

In the Big Problem, childhood obesity is described by Andy Sobel, who points out that the numbers of overweight children have increased sharply in recent years, and obesity has resulted in increased diabetes and other illnesses. He describes model programs in specific communities and different corporate policies that provide hope for change.

Ken Rabin, who has lived and worked in the USA, UK, France, Germany and Poland, writes about different medical policies in his article The Health of Nations. These include attitudes toward truthful diagnosis, confidence in scientific evidence, and the value of cost-cutting procedures. Medical nationalism is a serious problem that needs to be recognized.

Emmanuel Tchividjian writes about Medical Ethics as a complex subject that deals with respect for individual and public life. He describes such issues as cloning and stem cell research, about which there are many beliefs. He believes that different points of view held by philosophers, theologians, sociologists and physicians all need to be respected. In

Woman in Charge, Nancy Glick provides a mass of statistics that show the increasing role women play — in the workforce, as consumers, and in the family. She points out the differences between men and women in regard to a variety of health issues. Her belief is that women deserve great respect as health managers, marketers and educators.

In Surviving Cancer, Susan Smirnoff tells the story of her son Noah, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease at the age of nine. Noah is now 20 years old, in college and is doing well. Her experience has helped her in the work she does on many healthcare projects, including Gleevex, the Novartis blockbuster product for cancer patients.

In Pandemic Preparedness, Miranda Duncan and Christin Puschauver describe the prospect of an Avian Flu pandemic. Although the possibility may be remote, comprehensive plans are being developed in which communicators will play a major role along with help from global experts, the government and the private sector.

Noah Finn writes in Being Young and Growing Up Online about the changes that took place in his life from being young, when he had many unusual ideas, to becoming an adult and a Ruder Finn executive. He has been in the Paris office for some time, and he describes his enthusiasm for the client projects he has been working on and the values he especially admires.

As a companion piece I have written an article entitled Becoming Old and Discovering that All is Always Now. I write about the many elderly people I have known and describe my own thoughts about being 86 years old. I explain my belief that although we can never know what the future will be like, the present is always infinite and eternal.

Della Burns and David Kalson write about Mental Illness, which costs the country $63 billion every year. Problems include discrimination, stereotypes in advertising and stigma in entertainment media. However, significant progress is being made in ending the negative attitudes, developing new treatments, and reintegrating patients into society.

As one of our Over Ninety series of interviews, I talked to David Brown, a well-known producer of famous motion pictures and Broadway plays. He works on new plays and movies all the time because he believes if he retired he would lose his zest for life. He likes to think the best is yet to come, although he is depressed by the war in Iraq, which he thinks should end now.

 

 

 
 
Two RF Campaigns receive PR Week Award Nominations

Two RF Campaigns receive PR Week Award Nominations

Ruder Finn's work with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and TiVo has received nominations in the 2009 PR Week awards

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RF secured a placement on CBS Evening News for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, which is in the midst of celebrating its 50th anniversary.

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