HEALTH CARE HEROES 2026 AWARDS
Volunteer: Alexander “Alex” Chow, Rhode Island Hospital volunteer
What led you to choose health care as your profession? The suicide of my close friend in high school made me realize the lack of attention and care given to mental health in the health care space. I hope to pursue psychiatry while researching the biological underpinnings of mental health conditions like depression to help as many people as I can realize that life is worth living.
Cross Insurance Expands Rhode Island Presence with New Providence Office
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How have you helped boost the quality of or access to health care? I built a web application for Rhode Island Hospital to aid visitors’ navigation with interactive, step-by-step, annotated image guides. It is hosted at https://rih-wayfinder.vercel.app/, and we hope to expand to other hospitals, such as The Miriam Hospital, soon.
What more do you feel the state can do to help further support the health care sector in Rhode Island? I believe accessibility is the greatest challenge for the health care sector right now. Thus, I hope to see more state-level support for individuals who lack access to health care, especially given the recent policies implemented by our administration, which have negatively affected health care accessibility.
Are you confident patient access and quality of care will improve in Rhode Island over the next five years? Why or why not? I am not entirely confident given the current state of the administration and the global political climate, but I believe that we can work together to create the change we want to see by stacking up the small improvements we make every day and truly listening to what the patients have to say.
Tell us one thing that most people don’t know about you. I’m an avid street photographer, and I know how to juggle and do a decent mouth trumpet.
