Surviving and thriving
ConvergenceRI celebrates its 12th year of publication
A bee searches for pollen on a sunflower, reflective of the symbiotic relationship that exists between engaged communities.
More than 200 parents and children gathered on Sunday, Sept. 15, to celebrate all the newborns that were in the NICU in 2020, a birthday celebration delayed because of COVID. The high quality of care provided to newborns at the NICU at Women & Infants Hospital translated into a joyful birthday party for nearly 100 four-year-olds.
PROVIDENCE – On Monday, Sept. 23, ConvergenceRI will celebrate entering its 12thyear of publishing an online, digital news platform, covering the convergence of health, science, innovation, technology, research and community in Rhode Island.
As much as ConvergenceRI has survived and thrived in a disrupted media market, and I have persevered despite worsening chronic health conditions; the biggest challenge we all face comes from the diminished nature of accurate, in-depth news reporting. Our world has become flooded with toxic platforms that push out misinformation and disinformation, exploiting our fears and anxiety as a way to sell lies.
The biggest problem, of course, is with the narrative being pushed and prodded in favor of the corporate status quo.
When it comes to reporting on the disruption of the health care delivery system in Rhode Island, in Massachusetts, and in the nation, whom are we to believe? Steward Health Care? Optum? Medical Properties Trust?
I am proud of the brand that ConvergenceRI has built during the last decade, focused on honesty and accuracy and in-depth reporting – what a top communications professional working for a Rhode Island health system described as being “a barometer of truth.” Simply put, I cannot be bought; I will not reprint news releases as news.
It is a badge of honor, I suppose, that the state’s largest health care delivery system will not talk with me, apparently afraid of the questions that I would ask. “Really?” as radio anchor Steve Klamkin would say.
In June of 2024, the Community Care Alliance presented me with an “Advocacy in Action” award – “ in recognition of accuracy in reporting [on] health care, social service and behavioral health concerns related to the neglected and marginalized populations.”
The award continued: “For dedication in directly addressing policy matters on behalf of people that often feel unseen and have no voice politically.”
Twice in the last decade, the Childhood Lead Action Project awarded me with their media award for my coverage of efforts to protect Rhode Island children from lead poisoning.
Listening to the voices.
Last week, ConvergenceRI covered the reading by Ieva Jusionyte from her new book, Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence across the Border” in Mexico. Her reading at Symposium Books came at a time when gun violence and its tragic results – the shooting death of a 7-year-old girl in the backseat of a car – illuminated the dangers of unresolved conflicts.
Nationally, the spectacle of former President Donald Trump ranting and raving during a Presidential debate about the alleged threat of immigrants eating pet dogs and cats captured how devoid the national news media is in discussing the facts around what is occurring on the border.
If only the news media – and the Congressional delegation here in Rhode Island – could find the time to read Jusionyte’s book, they would have a better understanding of what is happening. It requires a commitment to seeking out the facts – and sharing them with their constituencies. [See links to ConvergenceRI stories below: “To halt the vicious circle of border violence,, stop the flow of guns,” “There is a man with a gun over there,” and “Justice as a life force.”]
The question is: What will it take for WPRI’s Ted Nesi and Tim White to invite Ieva Jusionyte onto their “Newsmakers” interview program? Or merely to read her book?
The nearer your destination
When ConvergenceRI was creating the original schematics for the website, it was an ongoing dialogue to convince the web designers to understand the need to change the way the different narratives were described: the use of “innovation ecosystem” and “research engine” and “delivery of care” were my conscious choices to avoid the labels that reinforced the hierarchy of the status quo.
During the past two years, Rhode Island has decided to invest $45 million to develop what it is calling the R.I. Life Science Hub, with Neil Steinberg, the former president and CEO of the Rhode Island Foundation, serving as chair of the board of directors of the newly created Hub. The stated goal of the Hub is to replicate the efforts by Massachusetts and its seminal $1 billion investment in life sciences in 2008 under then Gov. Deval Patrick.
The problem, as ConvergenceRI has consistently reported on, is whether or not Rhode Island is shovel-ready to emulate what Massachusetts accomplished. [See link below to ConvergenceRI stories, “Is RI shovel-ready to replicate the MA-model for life sciences cluster innovation,” “When narratives collide, who’s telling the truth,” “An arranged marriage between public health, real estate,” and “New life forms take center stage.”] The biggest missing component is data on the performance of the innovation economy in Rhode Island.
JLL [Jones Lang LaSalle] was recently chosen as the Hub’s project management firm to lead the design and build out the Hub’s life sciences laboratory incubator. JLL has played a prominent if not oversized role in the development of the RI Life Science Hub. [See link below to ConvergenceRI story, “Putting ‘life’ into the life sciences enterprise.”]
In turn, Brown University has shared architectural renderings for its vision of what it says will be the state’s largest academic laboratory building when it is completed. And, on Friday, Sept 20, Dr. Mukesh K. Jain, MD, Senior Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences, will deliver his third annual “State of Biomed Address.”
Enterprising research
The ongoing clinical research of Dr. Jill Maron at Women & Infants on rapid genomic analysis of saliva swabs, of Dr. Linda Carpenter at Butler Hospital on the success of treating depression with transcranial magnetic stimulation, and of Dr. Audrey Tyrka, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University and co-director of the COBRE Center on Stress, provides Rhode Island with the kind of research excellence that has the potential to transform the way that health care is delivered to infants and how early life trauma is identified and treated.
“One of the most rewarding things about this treatment, which is very unlike everything else in psychiatry, is that patients come to us who are completely hopeless,” Dr. Carpenter told ConvergenceRI in a recent interview. “They have had decades of medications, but they are not better. They are often fully disabled. And, over the course of a couple of months, we see these transformations. It is unbelievable; you just don’t see this in outpatient practice. You don’t see this in the hospital.”
The value of ConvergenceRI
Much of the current metrics around social media platforms count how many clicks or likes different posts may receive, as a way of measuring social influence. ConvergenceRI takes a different approach, putting the emphasis on reaching the top echelon of decision-makers and policy-makers in Rhode Island. That value proposition still holds true
Under girding that value proposition is the belief that our own personal stories are our most valuable possessions, and the act of sharing them reinforces our human connections, enabling us to find common ground as neighbors wherever we live.
