A new president is on the job this week at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. After more than four months getting to know the community, Danielle Laraque-Arena is replacing interim president Greg Eastwood, and wants collaboration to be a focus of her leadership.
“I think the best science emerges when you have effective teams. Medicine in the 21st century is all about team based care. It’s not me as a physician, what I can do individually, because what I can do individually can be augmented and magnified if I can do it effectively as a team,” said Laraque-Arena.
The new president says one of the issues the teaching hospital can provide leadership on is the concentrated poverty in the city of Syracuse. She says medical institutions should be part of the solution because of the effect that poverty has on health.
"We must address the issues that lead to increased mortality and morbidity and illness and help promote health. And we are part of that puzzle of addressing the issue of concentrated poverty in Syracuse.”
A recent study found that Syracuse has the highest rate of poverty among blacks and Latinos in the nation.
