Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1353232
46 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP POPULATION HEALTH Colorado governor honors nurse who worked through pandemic amid cancer treatment By Erica Carbajal C olorado Gov. Jared Polis honored Toni Moses, RN, a nurse at UCHealth in Greeley, during the annu- al state of the state address Feb. 17, local news station CBS4 reported. Ms. Moses is a longtime emergency department nurse who continued to work on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandem- ic while undergoing chemotherapy for stage 4 ovarian cancer. "Here's somebody who went in every day, while facing probably the hardest time in her own life, but never letting that stop her from doing the needed work," Mr. Polis said. Ms. Moses completed her first round of chemotherapy just as the first cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in Colorado. By Septem- ber 2020, when COVI -19 cases were spiking, her cancer came back and she continued to care for patients. "I was at high risk," Ms. Moses said. "I think working is something I love. I've been a nurse for over 30 years and it brings normalcy to your life." n Walgreens taps Starbucks exec as new CEO By Katie Adams W algreens Boots Alliance appointed Rosalind Brewer as its CEO, effective March 15. Ms. Brewer replaced Stefano Pessina, who announced he was stepping down from the CEO role July 27. He will become the executive chair of Walgreens Boot Alliance's board. The com- pany has not said why Mr. Pessina decided to step down. Current executive chair James Skinner will step down from his role but remain on the board, and Ms. Brewer will also join the board. Ms. Brewer has 35 years of experience in the retail industry and has held several corporate leadership positions. Most recent- ly, she served as Starbucks' COO, group president and board member. Before that, she served as the president and CEO of Sam's Club. "I step into this role with great optimism for the future of WBA, a shared responsibility to serve our customers, patients and com- munities, and a commitment to drive long-term sustainable value for shareholders," Ms. Brewer said in a news release. n Immunizations expert accuses CDC, Deloitte of stealing her idea for vaccination tracking system By Katie Adams T iffany Tate, executive director of the immunization coalition Maryland Partnership for Prevention, alleged that the CDC and Deloitte stole her intel- lectual property to create the CDC's COVID-19 vaccine data management system, according to a cease-and-desist letter obtained by e New York Times. Ms. Tate told the Times Feb. 6 she previewed her system, called PrepMod, for COVID-19 vaccination data man- agement to the CDC and Deloitte officials, who the CDC said were consultants, in May. She also said she offered to license her system for $15 million. In May, the CDC gave Deloitte $16 million to build and manage the federal system for COVID-19 vaccine distri- bution and administration tracking, and it gave the com- pany another $28 million for the project in December. e federal government offered the system, called the Vaccine Administration Management System, or VAMS, to states to use for free, but most states have opted to pay for alternative systems or use paper recording methods. Ms. Tate's cease-and-desist letter, dated Aug. 30, accuses the CDC and Deloitte of stealing her intellectual property, saying that VAMS' design mirrors that of PrepMod and one of PrepMod's new features "also eventually found its way into" VAMS. "I was in shock, and I really was heartbroken because I've worked with these people my entire career and I respect- ed them and I trusted them," Ms. Tate told the Times. "It was very, very upsetting." Ms. Tate told the Times that aer the CDC rejected her offer to license PrepMod, she sold it to states herself. Twenty-seven states and jurisdictions are using the sys- tem, with Louisiana expected to sign on and bring the total to 28. e CDC did not respond to the newspaper's request for comment. Deloitte spokesperson Jonathan Gandal told the Times Ms. Tate's accusations are "baseless" and said VAMS is a "scalable, Salesforce-based application designed to CDC's requirements and not based on [her] information or technology." n