FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM DECEMBER 10, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
Courtesy of Hunters Point Parks Conservancy
Virtual LIC Summit focuses on economic recovery in post-COVID era
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Th e seventh annual LIC Summit, organized
St. John’s Medical Group opens new practice in Rockaway Park
BY QNS STAFF
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
St. John’s Medical Group has expand
its health care off erings in the Rockaways
with the opening of a new outpatient
medical practice in Rockaway Park.
Th e new facility, located at 105-38
Rockaway Beach Blvd. off ers community
members outpatient medical care and will
open in three phases.
On Th ursday Dec. 3, the practice began
off ering adult and pediatric dermatology,
adult endocrinology, behavioral health
care and primary care.
In spring 2021, the facility will add cardiology,
general surgery, neurology, additional
primary care and vascular surgery
to its list of services.
In the fall of 2021, the medical practice
will add the Margaret O. Carpenter
Women’s Health Center and add 3-D
mammography, breast surgery, gynecology/
oncology, imaging, maternal fetal
medicine, nutrition, OB-GYN and urogynecology
to its repertoire.
In addition to the expanded services,
the new practice will be staff ed by a
host of new staff , including primary care
clinicians Dr. Vladislav Chernyshenko,
Dr. Yating Lee and Nurse Practitioner
Victoria Backus, pediatric and adult dermatologist
Dr. Louis Siegel; adult endocrinologist
Dr. Sophia Galustian; and social
worker Jamie Svenson.
Dr. Sharon Koehler, a breast surgeon,
will join the practice in January when the
practice begins off ering breast surgery.
To schedule and appointment for primary
care, dermatology, endocrinology or behavioral
health services, call 718-318-3434.
by the Long Island City Partnership,
was unlike any other due to the COVID-
19 pandemic.
Th e program in past years has focused
on the fastest-growing neighborhood in
the country, with new jobs and residents
that increased more than two times faster
than the rest of New York City, according
to LIC Partnership President Elizabeth
Lusskin.
Th is year’s summit, held virtually with
more than 200 participants, explored
the lasting eff ects of the pandemic and
how key groups such as small businesses,
healthcare, civic/nonprofi t, arts and
education, manufacturers, workforce, real
estate and government agencies worked
independently, as well as collaboratively,
to recover from the crisis.
Kathryn Wylde, the president and CEO
of Partnership of New York, who has participated
in six of the seven summits, said
it best during the keynote panel that discussed
navigating the pandemic to a more
equitable economy.
“We’ve got a lot to worry about,” Wylde
said.
Queens Borough President Donovan
Richards spoke about the reconstruction
projects taking place at JFK International
and LaGuardia airports as being key to a
Queens economic recovery, but when he
drilled down to Long Island City he pointed
to the growing tech sector in western
Queens.
“We have to grow,” Richards said. “We
have to reimagine what planning looks
like. Without growth, you’re not going to
save all these small businesses.”
Former Deputy Queens Borough
President Melva Miller, now the CEO of
the Association for a Better New York,
said Long Island City could serve as a
model of resiliency.
“Long Island City has led the city in
recent years and can lead the city out of
this crisis,” Miller said.
Wylde pointed to the growth of the
tech sector which has fl ourished in Long
Island City and has gotten even stronger
with the opening of Cornell Tech on
Roosevelt Island.
“And now life sciences are beginning to
come online,” Wylde said. “And related
medical supplies which have become so
important during the pandemic.”
Th at industry came into sharp focus
during the second panel of speakers discussing
community through crisis. Boyce
Industries Inc., which specialized in transit
safety solutions for the MTA, switched
its manufacturing to personal protection
equipment at the onset of the coronavirus
health emergency.
“We went from making face masks
to tens or hundreds of thousands
of face shields in early March,” Boyce
Technologies Founder and President
Charles Boyce said. “But then we heard
Governor Andrew Cuomo was down
to four ventilators statewide and I said,
‘We’re going to make ventilators’ even
though we didn’t know how ventilators
were made.”
Boyce got to work with his engineering
team and working with MIT, went
from idea and conceptual design to prototype
and mass production all within
four weeks and obtained US FDA approvals
in parallel.
“Within weeks we had manufactured
3,000 ventilators and shipped them
throughout the state,” Boyce said.
Photo courtesy of St. John’s Medical Group
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