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 [...]
Last week I wrote about the Health Care/Public Health Continuum… in which I described how in the public health world the community is the patient. In order to assess and better help the patient we need to have indicators and surveillance data to help us construct and implement interventions. One of our primary goals over [...]
The Fed’s operate a Medicare Physician Bonus Program to encourage doctors to work in underserved areas and improve access to care for folks on Medicare. Certain physicians (including MDs, DOs, dentists, podiatrists, and chiropractors) are eligible to receive a 10% bonus if they’re providing services to Medicare beneficiaries in a geographic primary care Health Professional [...]
Keeping off the pounds is tough at any age. Now seniors are getting a helping hand from Medicare. Last month Medicare announced that it’s adding coverage for nutritional and behavioral counseling for those who are obese as measured by body mass index or BMI. BMI is a tool which measures weight status for adults- and [...]
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 [...]
A few months ago our tobacco & chronic disease prevention team was awarded a CDC grant to increase coordination and collaboration on evidence-based interventions addressing the leading causes of chronic diseases in Arizona (heart disease, cancer, pulmonary disease, stroke, diabetes, and arthritis). The Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion grant will look for ways we [...]
When we think about holding things in confidence- several relationships come to mind that have a long history built on trust and the sharing of deeply private information. Most of us can name these relationships with ease… husband and wife… lawyer and client… health care providers, public health officials and patients. These relationships exist for [...]
Kudos to our EMS and Trauma System team for forging some new tools to improve trauma care in AZ. Our Data and Quality Assurance team developed an innovative benchmarking tool that’s shared with each of AZ’s trauma centers. The tool shows each facility their injury specific survival rates and compares those rates to the (blinded) other [...]
