Community Corner

Avon Theater & Stamford Hospital Team Up for Documentary Screening

The movie will be followed by a Q&A with medical professionals from Stamford Hospital

The Avon Theater and the Center for Integrative Medicine & Wellness at Stamford Hospital announced Wednesday, Jan. 9, that the two organizations would be teaming up in February for a showing of the documentary Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with Marc Brodsky, MD Medical Director, Joseph Feuerstein, MD Director Integrative Medicine, Kathleen Sanders, APRN, Program Director, Mind-Body Medicine, Ashley Maltz, MD Fellow, and Katherine Takayasu, MD Fellow.

Escape Fire looks at the rising costs of healthcare, which a press release claims could reach $4.2 trillion annually in ten years—roughly 20% of the United State's gross domestic product.

Find out what's happening in Stamfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"We spend $300 billion a year on pharmaceutical drugs—almost as much as the rest of the world combined," According to the release from Bridget Stokes. "We pay more, yet our health outcomes are worse. About 65% of Americans are overweight and almost 75% of healthcare costs are spent on preventable diseases that are the major causes of disability and death in our society. It’s not surprising that healthcare tops many Americans' concerns and is at the center of a political firestorm in our nation's Capitol."

The film says the greatest issue facing healthcare is that it is a system based on disease-care, not healthcare.

Find out what's happening in Stamfordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"This film follows dramatic human stories as well as leaders fighting to transform healthcare at the highest levels of medicine, industry, government, and even the US military," according to the release. "Escape Fire is about finding a way out. It's about saving the health of a nation."

Brief bios for each of the panelists were also included:

Marc Brodsky, M.D., is the Medical Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine and Wellness. In addition to this role, he oversees the pain management program at the Center. Dr. Brodsky is Board Certified in Family Medicine and in Hospice and Palliative Care. As a Navy Physician, he served in California, Hawaii, Korea, and Japan. After his military service, he received fellowship training in Integrative East-West Pain Management under the Department of Medicine at UCLA and went on to serve as an Assistant Clinical Professor at that institution. Currently, as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University, he oversees the Integrative Medicine curriculum for Stamford Hospital Residents and Columbia University Family Medicine Residents as well as the intensive clinical 2-year Integrative Medicine Fellowship that began at the Center in 2011 in collaboration with the University of Arizona.

Joseph Feuerstein, M.D., is Director of Integrative Medicine. A medical doctor specializing in family medicine, he completed a fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, School of Medicine, where he trained directly under the renowned natural physician, Dr. Andrew Weil. In this two-year program, Dr. Feuerstein studied a wide range of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities with special emphasis on nutrition and disease prevention. Dr. Feuerstein is also certified in Clinical Hypnosis and Clinical Acupuncture and also is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University.

Kathleen Sanders, APRN, is Program Director of Mind-Body Medicine. Ms. Sanders is board certified as a family nurse practitioner, has a master's degree in public health, completed a fellowship in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona with Dr. Andrew Weil and is a Bravewell Collaborative Fellow. Kathleen is also certified in Clinical Hypnosis. She is trained in Peg Huddleston’s Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster program as well as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) from the University of Massachusetts Jon Kabat-Zinn program and Mindfulness-Based Eating AwarenessTraining (MB-EAT).

Dr. Ashley Maltz, M.D., is completing a two-year fellowship in integrative medicine at Stamford Hospital’s Center for Integrative Medicine & Wellness and the University of Arizona. She earned her Medical Degree and Master in Public Health from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, TX. Dr. Maltz completed a combined Internal and Preventive Medicine Residency at UTMB. Dr. Maltz's specific interests include helping her patients and populations improve their health through lifestyle interventions including, but not limited to, nutrition, exercise, mind-body techniques and decreasing environmental exposures.

Katherine Takayasu, MD Fellow, is completing a two-year fellowship in integrative medicine at Stamford Hospital’s Center for Integrative Medicine & Wellness and the University of Arizona. She earned her Medical Degree and Master in Business Administration from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Takayasu completed her residency in Family Medicine at Columbia University – New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. A board-certified family doctor, Dr. Takayasu’s specific interests include integrating complementary modalities such as acupuncture into women’s health areas like pregnancy, chronic pelvic pain, infertility, and menopause management.



Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here