Pfizer COO Albert Boula will succeed Read as CEO effective next year, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Kentucky, New York, and Oklahoma.
- Kentucky: A U.S. District Court judge on Friday struck down a 20-year-old Kentucky law that put last abortion clinic in the state at risk of closure. The law required abortion clinics in the state to have written transfer agreements with a hospital and ambulance service in case of emergency. Judge Greg Stivers in the ruling said that the law did "not advance a legitimate interest," in promoting women's health and, instead, "effectively eliminate[d] women's rights to abortions in the state" (AP/Los Angeles Times, 9/28).
- New York: Pfizer announced Monday that Ian Read will step down as CEO to fill the role of executive chair effective Jan. 1, 2019. Read said, "Given my age, it's time for me to move on." Current COO Albert Bourla will succeed Ian Read as CEO (Rockoff, Wall Street Journal, 10/1).
- Oklahoma: Pam Henry—who was the last living poster child for March of Dimes, a fundraising campaign formerly dedicated to the eradication of polio—died last week at age 68, the New York Times reports. Henry was diagnosed with polio when she was 14 months old in 1951 and was the first female television reporter in Oklahoma City. She also served as head of a mayoral commission in Oklahoma City to advocate for people with disabilities who faced employment discrimination. Don Sherry, Henry's friend and former colleague, said the activist passed as a result of complications from intestinal surgery (Slotnik, New York Times, 9/28).
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