Today's Globe: West treats East, Rihanna assault, Holy Family chief, Blue Cross departure, community health centers, toxic pollution agency, Army suicide, medical thriller, Mark Beers

To help traumatized Tibetan monks, doctors in Boston turn to cross-cultural medicine.

Nearly half of the 200 Boston teenagers interviewed for an informal poll said pop star Rihanna was responsible for the beating she allegedly took at the hands of her boyfriend, fellow music star Chris Brown, in February.

Tom Sager, president of Caritas Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, will step down in about three months to assume two fund-raising positions for the hospital and the larger Caritas Christi Health Care system.

Stephen R. Booma, executive vice president at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, yesterday resigned from the state's largest health insurer, effective July 1.

Most community health centers, public hospitals, and local health departments -- the primary strands in the nation's healthcare safety net -- say they have become significantly busier in the last seven months, as the economy has worsened.

Fort Campbell officials struggling to stem a recent increase in military suicides hope family members will be able to spot signs that soldiers may be depressed and hesitant to seek help from the Army.

A top US health official said yesterday that his agency is working to improve protection of neighborhoods from toxic pollution as scientists, communities, and the Congress accuse it of taking a path of least resistance in figuring out health hazards.

Local author Michael Palmer has become a master of the medical thriller. In his 14th novel, "The Second Opinion," something's rotten inside the greatest hospital in the world, Boston's Beaumont Clinic.

Dr. Mark H. Beers, a geriatrician whose seminal research found that some widely used prescription drugs led to harmful and unnecessary side effects in the elderly, died Feb. 28 in Miami Beach. He was 54 and lived in Miami Beach and Fire Island, N.Y.