During a major crisis, such as an influenza pandemic, we might need to take extraordinary steps to ensure that healthcare workers have the medicines and supplies on hand to treat patients. State, local, and federal agencies all participate in the Strategic National Stockpile program to help ensure that these critical resources are available during disaster situations. [...]
The CDC's “Strategic National Stockpile” is a large quantity of medicine and medical supplies that are available to states in case there’s a public health emergency (flu outbreak, asteroid, etc.) severe enough to cause local health supplies to run out. Once federal and local authorities agree that the stockpile is needed, meds and supplies are [...]
About 1/3 of American adults have high blood pressure and more than half of them don’t have it under control. The majority of people with high blood pressure are being treated with medicine and have seen a doctor at least twice in the past year… but their pressure still isn't under control, according to a new [...]
Please join me in welcoming Cara Christ, MD as our new Division of Licensing Services chief. Cara has agreed to share her talents as the new Assistant Director for Licensing as well as serving as the Agency Chief Medical Officer. Also, thanks a million to Colby Bower who's been doing an excellent job serving as interim director for licensing since Alan [...]
Medicine and public health have relied on peer-reviewed published scientific literature to help guide progress in patient treatment and public health interventions for decades- even centuries. For example, when we did the fact-finding to inform our decision about whether to add the petitioned conditions to the list of disorders that qualify for AZ medical marijuana cards- [...]
This week marks the 50th anniversary of National Poison Prevention Week. For the first time ever- poisoning surpassed car crashes as the number one cause of injury deaths in AZ and more than 2,000 kids had to go to emergency rooms last year from unintentional poisoning. Kids under 5 had the highest rates of non-fatal emergency department visits from poisoning. For more [...]
Prescription drugs can be safe and effective at treating illnesses and conditions, but they can also be tempting for experimental teens, and misuse and abuse of narcotic prescriptions is a growing and now urgent problem. Powerful prescription drugs are often available and easily accessible in many, if not most, homes and many parents don’t recognize [...]
