The COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping the world around us, and myriad Long Island forces – large and small, corporate and nonprofit, industrial and educational – are rising to the challenge. Innovate Long Island presents Innovation in the Age of Coronavirus as a real-time journal of this region’s resourceful response to the greatest global challenge since World War II. Stay healthy, dear readers. At SBU and elsewhere, new MDs arriving a little early (April 7)…
By GREGORY ZELLER // A $58 million bond sale will likely fuel the large-scale expansion of a preeminent Long Island charter school. The Town of Hempstead Local Development Corp. has granted preliminary approval to the tax-exempt bond sale, which the Academy Charter School will use to build and equip a new vocational/technical high school in Uniondale, create new middle-school facilities in Uniondale and expand its existing Hempstead middle school to accommodate elementary-aged students. The bond…
From its Parisian headquarters and throughout its multinational network, accounting giant Mazars has unequaled exposure to the coronavirus crisis, spanning continents and industries. And thanks to its global nature, each of its international offices shares equally in that front-row, from-the-trenches perspective, including its Long Island operation, a pulsating hub of 165 professionals with coast-to-coast clientele. Craig Fine, managing partner of Mazars USA’s Woodbury office, says the parent company and its subsidiaries were well-prepared to…
April 13 Social Media Responsibility: What is Your Digital Footprint? 6-7:15 p.m., held via Zoom Adelphi University presents an online workshop covering the do’s and don’ts of being a good web citizen, featuring attorney Jennifer Norman. Registration and more information. April 15 State of HOPE: Closing the Gap on Health Emergencies 5-7 p.m., online Hofstra University’s State of HOPE (for Healthcare Opportunities and Policy Exchange) lecture series presents a National Public Health Week panel…
By GREGORY ZELLER // Life will go on after the coronavirus pandemic – at Adelphi University, with unprecedented understanding of human communication. Right on schedule, the university’s new Communication Sciences and Disorders Center for Research opened on March 2 – ribbon-cutting and everything – in Lower Level Linen Hall. The global COVID-19 pandemic, of course, has temporarily closed Adelphi’s Garden City campus, including the new research center. But its six renovated laboratories, plus its Telepractice…
By MICHAEL H. SAHN // We are fighting a great battle against COVID-19. Healthcare providers – the people in the trenches, our heroic first responders – deserve our greatest admiration and deepest respect. But in a very real sense, all of us are on the front lines and exposed to the dangers of this crisis. We will prevail. But the costs will be staggeringly high, in both lives lost and economic damage. To recover, we…
By GREGORY ZELLER // A 3D-printed nasal swab created by a multistate academic-industry collaboration is up to snuff, and has begun circulating through resources-strapped healthcare facilities. Northwell Health – partnering with the University of South Florida and Massachusetts-based additive-manufacturing expert Formlabs – has successfully tested prototype swabs meeting federal standards for COVID-19 testing. The swabs, comprised of “biocompatible autoclavable resins” from Formlabs’ stocks and based on initial designs out of USF’s 3D Clinical Applications Division,…
By GREGORY ZELLER // The pandemic may close college campuses, but it can’t kill a school’s spirit, or compassion. This week, Adelphi University announced efforts to keep up with some of the most vulnerable members of its community, even through the teeth of COVID-19’s quasi-quarantines. The Garden City-based university announced it was ramping up support for students on the autism spectrum, with its Bridges to Adelphi program reaching out remotely to students and their families,…
By GREGORY ZELLER // An emotional rite of passage for future physicians has made a high-tech, if slightly more impersonal, Age of Coronavirus pivot. Match Day is an annual event during which graduating medical students across the nation open personalized letters from the National Resident Matching Program, revealing the next steps of their long educational journeys: their residencies, where they will spend years finishing off their medical educations. Usually a joyous tearjerker featuring packed college…
By GREGORY ZELLER // Like virtually every business in virtually every industry, law firms are scrambling in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some more than others, though – not every business, and certainly not every law firm, was as ready as Nixon Peabody. Thanks to modern thinking, a few nimble pivots and some old-fashioned serendipity, the international law firm (12 U.S. locations, including a thriving Jericho office, and four across Asia) remains business-ready – if…
By GREGORY ZELLER // The federal government will construct four emergency hospitals across Downstate New York, including two on Long Island, in response to the coronavirus crisis. The Stony Brook University and SUNY College at Old Westbury campuses have been identified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as potential sites for temporary hospitals, along with Manhattan’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and the Westchester County Center – and on Sunday, President Donald Trump announced…
By DAVID CHAUVIN // CNN had the results of the Florida Democratic Primary as its top story for maybe 10 minutes – results that would seem to have effectively ended the historic presidential campaign of the once-transcendent Bernie Sanders and solidified Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. Nary a blip in our public consciousness. And just one of the astonishing changes crystalizing what coronavirus has done to the national conversation. All news is now COVID-19,…
By GREGORY ZELLER // Health equity – a concept freshly redefined by our times – takes center stage in this year’s Healthcare Entrepreneurship Community Challenge. Hofstra University’s long-running entrepreneurship competition is offering $50,000-plus in cash and business-resource prizes to early-stage enterprises addressing socialized healthcare problems in underserved Long Island, New York City and Hudson Valley communities. This year’s “challenge topic” is “advancing health equity,” focused on innovative products and services that “improve the total health…
By GREGORY ZELLER // Chelsea Health Solutions was remotely diagnosing symptoms before remotely diagnosing symptoms was cool. Now, with a global pandemic spreading, it’s ready to rock. Founded in New York City in 2017 by surgeon/entrepreneur Soumi Eachempati and multiple investor partners, including other healthcare professionals, the startup creates AI-powered mobile apps that serve as surrogate doctors, helping potential patients determine if they need to see a specialist, speed to the emergency room or simply…
By GREGORY ZELLER // A transit-oriented housing development and a bigger, better home for a large mortgage banker have earned the support of the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency. Trumpeting new affordable housing opportunities, new jobs and other economic benefits, the IDA has announced preliminary approval of a tax-abatement deal that will keep a Westbury mortgage firm in Nassau County – and help it nearly double its payroll – and final approval of a benefits…