Trying to Stay Healthy? The City Wants to Help You

Honestly, now: How many of you look at the postcard you get in the mail reminding you to get a checkup (or a blood pressure screening; eye exam, etc.) and immediately rush to the phone to make an appointment?
Right, we thought so.
New York wants you to be healthier, people, and now someone’s doing something about all those reminder flyers you get in the mail.
They’re calling you directly.
So now, you can throw away, but you can’t hide.
A new initiative is being launched today in New York City that will notify people who are due for health services--and call them so they can’t wiggle out of it.
Aimed at needy patients, the new Panel Management Program will determine when someone is due for a blood pressure screening or cholesterol check, for example--and then, gently but firmly, we hope, get on the phone and ask patients to schedule an appointment right then and there.
The Health Department has partnered with 20 medical practices, and will use electronic health records to locate the patients. The two-year pilot program is being funded privately by Pfizer, and is part of Mayor Bloomberg’s initiative to reach out to needy New Yorkers. The goal is to catch high-risk New Yorkers before an emergency.
Those targeted include patients with diabetes, heart conditions, or are obese.
Last year, a modified program was tested in a few practices. City staff were lent to the practices to help do outreach—and as result, 567 patients with heart conditions were reached--and 60 percent of them went in for long-overdue testing.

In New York, Even Scaffolding Can Get a Makeover

Walking under an ugly piece of scaffolding, or “sidewalk shed,” is as much a part of many New Yorkers' days as the morning subway ride or the line at the bank. But now, in an effort to make those dark, creepy, ramshackle enclosures less, well, dark, creepy and ramshackle, a new design is set to be unveiled.
The sheds are designed, ostensibly, to protect walkers from being hit by runaway debris while a building is being renovated or repaired. They’re found on both residential and commercial properties.
An international design competition was held to determine a new design: The winner was Young-Hwan Choi, a first-year architecture student at the University of Pennsylvania.
The design, entitled “Urban Umbrella,” will have customizable, transparent roofs. A UV-stabilized film could be used for the application of either different colors or a variety of art work; in other words, the roofs would become the basis for public art projects.
Mayor Bloomberg issued a statement saying that although the city changes, the sheds themselves have not. (Wouldn’t faster, more efficient work also be a solution, to get rid of the sheds faster? But we digress.)
A prototype should be up this summer. Supposedly more than 6000 sheds exist in New York City--this works out to more than one million linear feet. (You’re welcome for doing the math.)
So keep your eyes open—but your head covered--when you approach a sidewalk shed in upcoming months.

Mayor Bloomberg Gives Go-Ahead for Spanish TV Programming for Kids

With well over a million people speaking Spanish in New York, the recent initiative to offer the first Spanish-language educational TV programming for kids 2-7 years old comes at an appropriate time.
NYC TV Kids Presents V-me Niños was recently launched by Mayor Mike Bloomberg; Carmen DiRienzo, the President and CEO of V-me, a national Spanish-language network; and Katherine Oliver, the acting president of the NYC Media group.
The programming block, which includes both animated and live-action shows, can be viewed on NYC TV Channel 25, from 7:30 am to 10:00 am, Monday-Friday.
Some of the programs include ”Plaza Sesamo” (Yes, it is indeed “Sesame Street,” the classic and much-loved show for preschoolers, and yes, parents have been known to wander in and conveniently “find something that has to be done” while the show is airing as well); “Lazy Town,” a show dedicated to healthy kids that encourages them to eat healthily and to get up and move; “Five Minutes More”/”Cinco Minutas Mas” which features short segments that promote literacy with characters from Jim Henson; and “Bruno & the Banana Bunch,” which highlights a mischievous monkey who helps teach kids numbers, colors and shapes.
Three other programs complete the three-and-a-half-hour programming block, a welcome-—and much needed--addition to New York City’s TV options for kids.