Public health efforts eradicated smallpox from the globe in the late 1970s. The last naturally occurring case was in Somalia in 1977 (followed by a couple of lab accident cases in 1978). Public health’s sites have been set on Polio eradication for the last couple of decades. We got close a couple of times, but [...]
I started my career in public health inspecting restaurants, motels and the like in the mid- 1980s. My area was right around here down toward South Mountain- and I inspected the cafeteria in the basement of the Executive Tower and the cafeteria that used to be on the 4th floor of the 1740 building. It doesn’t seem [...]
Last legislative session, the Legislature and Governor made a statutory change that moved the AZ Biomedical Research Commission to our agency. The Commission basically awards contracts for research projects that translate into interventions to save lives. Our funding (a few million dollars per year) comes from tobacco taxes and some lottery funds. Shoana Anderson has volunteered to serve as [...]
The State Hospital has a new front door, at least on the Internet. Cory Nelson and Jesse Lewis spearheaded the effort to update the hospital’s homepage. Jesse worked with Gannon Wegner to punch out the project. The new landing page makes it a lot easier to find hospital info- everything from patient and family info, to [...]
Looking for a book to read over the holidays about one of public health’s biggest achievements? You’ll enjoy a new book written by Dr. Bill Foege called House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox. Dr. Foege was a key leader in the smallpox eradication effort. He joined the CDC in 1962 in the Epidemic Intelligence Service [...]
Our Division of Behavioral Health Services recently submitted its combined mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment services State Plan for FY 12-13 to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The Plan that we submitted to SAMHSA doubles as the State Plan that’s required by ARS 36-550.01. The Plan provides an overview of Arizona’s [...]
As our IT team was developing the electronic medical marijuana application tool they started seeing that the code they were writing had potential uses in other parts of the agency. In other words- that the basics of the Code could be used to electronify some of our other business lines. We looked for areas that consumed [...]
Disease detection and swift and effective public health interventions are essential to saving lives in a public health emergency. According to a new report from the CDC on Public Health Preparedness, Arizona's public health system is ready and well-prepared. The CDC report outlines the Department’s ability to detect and respond to a wide range of public [...]
There's a well-known quote attributed to Abe Lincoln that goes something like this: "Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 sharpening the axe." Maybe somebody will someday quote me as saying: "Give us 20 months to transform the delivery of behavioral health and primary care services to address the [...]
Just in time for the holidays, we’re got our first lab confirmed case of influenza – actually two cases. Influenza has probably been in the state for a while now, but we don’t officially start counting the cases until there is a case confirmed at our lab. The vaccine was approved this summer and fights 3 [...]
