On Saturday, Nov. 12, breathe kicked off the launch of its new downtown annex at 930 East Ave. in the Hutchison House and hosted a benefit for its 2011 Seva Challenge, a fund-raising program breathe participates in annually to raise money for a country-in-need. The event featured music by local artist, Angelo Rose; food by breathe and the Good Food Collective; and a silent auction.  About 250 people attended the event, which raised nearly $11,000 for the program. Proceeds helped breathe meet its $20,000 fund-raising goal to help those in Haiti affected by the 2010 earthquake. Wow!

For four years, breathe has aligned with Off the Mat, Into the World (OTM)’s annual Seva Challenge ("Seva" means "service).

Two of the region’s biggest health-care operations — Thompson Health and the University of Rochester Medical Center — are in talks about formalizing an affiliation, a move the chief executives of each organization say could save money and improve quality and access to care.

The marriage between the rural community health system and the Monroe County academic medical center would combine the best out of what each has to offer, officials say. Discussions continue this week with meetings among top board members, administrators and medical staff of each organization on whether an affiliation could also help the two entities deal with obstacles such as the reduction of government reimbursements that pay for care.

“We need to make services more regional,” said Dr. Bradford Berk, chief executive officer of URMC during a conference call at Thompson on Monday.