“When I have a bad day at work and I come to Rose and Peppi is here, my day's going to be made better,” EMT Jasmine Richardson said. “And if I have a patient who's having a tough day, Peppi just knows how to light up the room.”
Healthcare has evolved dramatically in recent years, with technology driving countless new opportunities, just as demographic and societal factors have created new challenges. This trajectory will continue into 2025, as advancements in AI, remote medicine, and biotechnology continue to reshape healthcare planning and delivery.
After unveiling new signage making visible the shift to new owner Brown University Health on Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Maura Healey toured Saint Anne's Hospital and celebrated that Massachusetts did "something that no other state was able to do" as Steward Health Care collapsed.
Saint Anne's was one of eight Steward hospitals in Massachusetts whose futures were thrown into doubt earlier this year when Steward's financial problems came to light and then when the company filed for bankruptcy. The Fall River hospital is one of six former Steward hospitals that remain open under new management.
Brown University Health (formerly known as Lifespan) finalized the acquisition of Saint Anne's Hospital in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton for $175 million on Oct. 1 and on Tuesday hosted the governor, Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh, Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein and others from Beacon Hill to see the facility and help rebrand it with Brown Health signage and logos.
Oz is a cardiothoracic surgeon, a specialist in the chest including the heart, lung and esophagus. He has an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a doctorate in medicine and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine and Wharton School. He has worked at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center — now the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. There, he was appointed director of the Cardiovascular Institute and participated in the first completely endoscopic, robotic open-heart operation and first robotic coronary artery bypass operation in the United States. He also co-founded and directed a Complementary Care Center there with alternative therapies such as energy healing, hypnosis and massage, according to reporting from the second half of the 1990s. He rose through the ranks at Columbia University, where he became a vice-chair and professor of surgery. The university has removed almost all content about Oz from its website since 2022.
The nomination of former TV host Mehmet Oz, MD, who lost to John Fetterman in 2022 in a race to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate, was a surprise to many close watchers of the agency, even in a health department that could be led by another unconventional pick, RFK Jr. It also continued a trend of Trump selecting TV personalities to oversee federal agencies. His candidates to run the Defense and Transportation Departments have been working for Fox News and Fox Business.