This week the WHO announced that several people in eastern China are infected with a newly mutated bird influenza virus called H7N9. All are in critical condition and some have died... but importantly the cases don't appear to be linked- meaning it's probably not from human to human transmission (that's good). The World Health Organization website has more detail [...]
This week we’re celebrating National Public Health Week… a week that helps us recognize the work we do to keep our communities healthy. Public health focuses on improving our overall health by making the entire healthcare system stronger. The theme of this year’s celebration is Return on Investment. This isn’t just an investment of money, [...]
Whooping cough (pertussis) is a growing problem in the US and Arizona. There were 41,880 cases and 14 infant deaths from pertussis in the US last year… which is the largest number of cases since the vaccine became available in the 50s. In Arizona there were 988 cases in 2012 and there’s a pretty substantial outbreak going on right [...]
Our Midwifery Scope of Practice Advisory Committee Meeting is meeting from 4 to 6 pm this evening in the Lab conference room (250 N 17 Avenue, Phoenix). The Agenda includes a discussion of the draft U of A Literature Review including a Presentation of the results along with the Draft Rules for Public Comment. The [...]
Healthcare providers including MDs, DOs, dentists, podiatrists, psychiatrists and chiropractors that work in a Health Professional Shortage Area (and meet the requirements) can apply for the Medicare Physician Bonus Program which qualifies for a 10% reimbursement bonus if they’re providing services to Medicare beneficiaries in a medical shortage area. Medical providers can check online to [...]
Valley Fever has been making news across the country today. A new report in this week’s CDC’s weekly epidemiology report shows that Valley Fever numbers have gone up substantially in AZ over the last 10 years. Part of the increase is probably due to the fact that Valley Fever became reportable a few years ago- [...]
Today marks the beginning of an historic arrangement between Arizona and the Republic of Korea to improve Trauma care. The Korea Arizona Trauma Summit began this morning with Arizona’s Governor welcoming the National Assembly Representative of the Democratic Party of Korea and the Minister of Health and Welfare. The Korean group includes several trauma surgeons [...]
We’re happy to unveil the new Arizona WIC Program website, which has been redesigned with a fresh new look that is more user friendly. Last year the WIC webpage had more than 76,000 unique visitors with nearly 350,000 page views- making it one of our most popular sites. The redesigned site includes a Find a [...]
Students can’t be academically successful when they’re battling anxiety, depression, substance abuse and other common conditions. Nearly 50% of lifetime mental disorders begin by the mid-teens. That’s why we’ve launched a partnership with Kognito Interactive to educate middle and high-school teachers how to recognize signs of depression and other mental health disorders that have the potential [...]
Our Licensing team routinely analyzes the most frequent and important deficiencies that we observe and posts the data on our website. We use the data to help educate the folks that we license… and to identify good topics for provider training and technical assistance (public health interventions). For example, our medical facilities licensing team has found that infection control [...]
