The Arizona Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics recently updated their collection of hands-on tools that can be easily integrated into clinical practice. The tools are designed to help clinicians to incorporate clinical evidence-based recommendations for obesity prevention, assessment, treatment and referral into their practice. They’ve included a document that can be folded to [...]
The formal protest process regarding our award of the Regional Behavioral Health Authority contract in Maricopa County is finally winding down. The proceedings at the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) were completed a few weeks ago, and the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) issued her recommendation on Monday, concluding that: “Based on the foregoing, it is [...]
The CDC just developed a great new Cost Calculator that provides state-level annual medical expenditure and absenteeism estimates for 10 chronic conditions. The tool provides medical expenditures for all of AZ for all payers as well as specific payers Medicaid, Medicare, and commercial insurers. The 10 chronic conditions are arthritis; asthma; cancer; cardiovascular diseases (congestive [...]
Whether you’re hosting a Thanksgiving celebration or attending as a guest, you can help make the healthy choice the easy choice for your friends and family. Consider making a healthier version of an old favorite to share. This recipe for Corn Bread Crusted Turkey would go great served with this slightly modified recipe for a [...]
A state law (HB 2036) was passed and signed awhile back that tasked us with several things related to the regulation of abortions in AZ. Among them were provisions directing us to develop a parental informed consent form for minors and establish a website with a host of information identified in the statute. Our next [...]
We’ve been monitoring the response times for the big ambulance service provider - Rural Metro – since they went into bankruptcy in August. They have 13 different ambulance services in Arizona and we want to make sure that they're meeting the grade during their reorganization. We asked them to send us monthly reports on their response times [...]
Arizona’s public health and healthcare system teamed up with the ADHS including our Bureau of Public Health Emergency Preparedness and the Arizona Division of Emergency Management last week in one of the largest preparedness exercises of the year. The objective was to test and build preparedness capabilities across the emergency management system in AZ. More than 3,000 [...]
I was fortunate to attend the 2nd annual “El Congreso Internacional de Promoción de la Salud (CIPS)” last week in Hermosillo. There were more than 400 public health attendees from 17 countries at the conference. I presented our pre-school Empower program…. which empowers kids to make good choices about nutrition, physical activity, and tobacco using age-appropriate vehicles including costumed characters and a coloring book. [...]
The FDA made a preliminary determination that partially hydrogenated oils (the primary dietary source of trans fat in processed foods) are not "generally recognized as safe" for use in food. Their review of the research has led them to conclude that consuming trans fat raises LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, and increases the risk of coronary heart disease. The FDA opened a 60-day [...]
Our Newborn Screening Program ensures that each newborn is tested for 28 inherited disorders and hearing problems. The goal is to help kids avoid illness, developmental delays and even death by quickly identifying problems and swiftly letting their doctors know so they can implement interventions. On any given day our newborn screening team tests from [...]
