5280 Health 2021

CALEB SANTIAGO ALVARADO “Above all, my work is about empowerment,” says photographer Caleb Santiago Alverado. Capturing Travis Plakke for “The Full Spectrum” (page 20), then, was an ideal assignment. “I am fascinated,” Alverado says, “by how people connect, exchange, and create community”—which is exactly what Plakke does as a member of Firefly Autism’s board who himself was diagnosed with autism as an adult. KIM HABICHT An admittedly “doctor-averse” individual, writer Kim Habicht had a personal interest in exploring the expanded applications—from dermatology to dentistry—telehealth has found during the pandemic for “House Calls” (page 12). “Realizing I can make an appointment and see a doctor without ever having to leave my bedroom?” Habicht says. “That’s game-changing to me.” SHANE MONAGHAN To report “Sage Advice” (page 96), writer Shane Monaghan spoke with…

From free lunch programs for frontline hospital workers to bright murals depicting health care heroes, Denver’s appreciation for medical professionals has perhaps never been more palpable. And although 5280 has been publishing lists of the metro area’s best physicians and dentists for years, the task took on a special significance for us in 2020, too, against the backdrop of the fight against COVID-19. In previous issues, the names in our “Top Doctors” feature (page 38) may have felt a bit abstract. Now, skimming the honorees in the emergency medicine section conjures images of exhausted physicians triaging coughing patients; the obstetrics category brings to mind babies being delivered by mothers in masks; and it’s not difficult to imagine the flood of desperate phone calls to psychiatrists from people reeling from the…

Park Days Inside Denver’s first K–5 outdoor classroom. When people hear about Worldmind School, they often go straight to the elements: What do you do in the winter? “I’m like, We’re outside,” says Worldmind founder Megan Patterson. A stint teaching in an Alaska Native village helped her realize that with the right gear, kids can—and gladly will—spend hours in nature’s classroom, even when temps drop into the teens. Worldmind’s outdoor education program, which expanded from preschool and kindergarten to include grades one through five this past fall, aims to prove why that’s a good thing for growing bodies and minds. After packing up at their home base, a mansion on Williams Street, the 32 K–5 children (annual tuition: $15,500) bike a half-mile in groups to City Park. There, Worldmind’s four teachers might ask…

Not too long ago, Beverly Grant visited a yoga studio in the Five Points neighborhood of Denver. “I immediately got pissed going in there, with the way I was received,” Grant says. “The way they were looking at me.” To Grant, the message was clear: The Front Range yoga community was white. At best, she was different; at worst, she was unwelcome. Lakshmi Nair knows the feeling all too well. After moving to Denver in 2004, the veteran yoga instructor spent a decade searching for a studio where she felt comfortable. “I didn’t see a lot of people of color teaching yoga,” Nair says. “Not even practicing.” So, in 2018, Nair started Satya Yoga Cooperative, a Denver-based network of teachers focused on healing Black and brown bodies and minds. The…

In mid-March, when Governor Jared Polis suspended elective surgeries and nonemergency medical procedures to slow the spread of COVID-19, doctors weren’t sure how they’d treat routine patients—those with common colds or, say, pimply teenagers. “The truth was that nobody had a great road map for something like this because it was really unexpected,” says Ari Melmed, medical director of Kaiser Permanente’s telehealth services in Colorado. Soon, though, Kaiser docs were seeing 90 percent of patients via a computer screen, up from about 10 percent before the pandemic, and many people actually seemed to enjoy the virtual experience more than the IRL version. (Turns out waiting for a tardy doctor isn’t so aggravating if you’re doing it from your own couch.) Here, we outline how telemed helped three specialties treat patients…

BUTTONED UP Company: BioIntelliSense, est. 2018 Find It: biointellisense.com Firm Profile: From its headquarters in Golden, this medical-grade device company develops tech for the continuous monitoring of vital signs, physiological biometrics, and symptomatic events. Breakout Product: In January 2020, BioIntelliSense debuted the BioSticker (pictured), the world’s first device that can be put on like a Band-Aid and remotely monitor a patient’s vital signs with the same accuracy as traditional tools in the intensive care unit. When COVID-19 came along, the company fast-tracked the development of the BioButton, a little brother device it rolled out in May that watches for signs of infection, like elevated body temperature. (Both are sold primarily business-to-business, at undisclosed rates.) In Layman’s Terms: The BioSticker and the BioButton are single-use devices that adhere to the skin…