In an effort to spread the good word about our innovative Empower Pack program, we submitted an article for presentation at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting this fall. We heard last week that our submission entitled "EMPOWER – Arizona's collaborative leadership efforts in implementing policy on childhood obesity and tobacco use in child [...]
An article in last month’s New England Journal of Medicine provides a good summary of the public’s perception of the H1N1 response in an article called The Public's Response to the 2009 H1N1 Influenza Pandemic. It’s a comprehensive review of data from 20 national public opinion polls conducted between April 2009 and January 2010. Early [...]
School is out & the UV index will be over 10 for the next couple of months, meaning that it’s sun safety season. Since the majority of a person’s lifetime exposure to the sun occurs by the age of 18, it’s crucial to protect and educate parents and children about the simple steps to take [...]
The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office determined that enough valid signatures were turned in to put “The Arizona Medical Marijuana Act” on the November 2 ballot as a voter initiative. Basically, if the Act were to pass and be certified, it would create a system so that “qualifying patients” could apply to dispense, use and [...]
Our Smoke Free Arizona team published our 3rd annual ADHS Smoke-Free Arizona Annual Report 2010 this week. The report found (just like last year) that compliance the law is excellent, thanks in large part to the common-sense approach that we took when implementing the act since 2007. Over the last year, the county health departments conducted [...]
As I’ve mentioned in previous updates, the service package for folks with serious mental illnesses that don’t qualify for our state Medicaid program (AHCCCS) is being reduced beginning July 1 because of budget reductions. As a result, it’s more important than ever to make sure that everybody that may qualify has the opportunity top get [...]
Which city do you think is overall more fit and healthy, Phoenix or Pittsburgh. I won’t give you the answer, you’ll have to go to this year’s The ACSM American Fitness Index Report at http://www.americanfitnessindex.org/ to get the answer. They put this report out every year to help city planners, policy makers, health educators, and [...]
The federal government has committed to significant new funding for community health centers in the coming years. Nationally, about $13B will become available over the next 5 years for community health center expansion ($9.5B); facility improvement ($1.5B) and workforce development ($1.5B). This translates into about 7,000 to 10,000 new community health center sites nationally over [...]
For regular readers, you know this is the last topic of the CDCs 5 "winnable battles". CDC's new leader, Dr. Thomas Frieden, is focusing the agency's energies on these topics because he believes we can beat them in three years. 5. Teen Pregnancy Preventing teen childbearing could save the United States about $9 Billion per [...]
This week I'm looking at what you are sure to hear a lot about in the coming three years. The CDC, led by Dr. Thomas Frieden, will be strategically addressing 5 "winnable battles" in public health. So far, I told you about Healthcare associated infections, childhood obesity and preventing smoking. We can make a difference [...]
