Expanding the Use of Data to Improve Health
Recently our informatics staff in the Office of Infectious Disease Services partnered with hospital IT staff to add two more hospitals to BioSense, the national syndromic surveillance system. We now have 26 hospitals sharing information about all their emergency department visits, including the chief complaint, diagnoses, and patient demographics. We use BioSense to understand what hospitals are seeing for syndromes [...]
Governor Doug Ducey Appoints Three New ABRC Commissioners
Governor Doug Ducey has named three new Commissioners to the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission. The new Commissioners are: John Cover, who will represent the medical community; Howard Eng, who will represent the scientific community; and Cosmo Magliozzi who will serve as a public member. The Commissioners guide the work of ABRC by establishing research priorities and identifying key challenges and potential [...]
Arizona’s First Rabid Domestic Animal in Seven Years
This week, Arizona confirmed a case of rabies in a horse from Santa Cruz County . This is the first case of rabies in a domestic animal in Arizona since 2009. The horse became sick and was eventually euthanized. Public health is assessing the risk of exposure for all people involved in caring for and handling the horse. There have [...]
Inaugural Arizona Cord Blood Conference held in Phoenix
On April 7, the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission and University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix held the inaugural 2016 Arizona Cord Blood Conference: Lifeline to the Future. The conference brought together policy makers, patients and their families, researchers, and clinicians together to build awareness of collecting umbilical cord blood and create a cohesive network supporting the Arizona Public Cord Blood Program. The Arizona [...]
National Infant Immunization Week
We’re kicking of National Infant Immunization Week this week and are excited to recognize the healthcare providers, public health workers, and parents who protect our babies and communities from preventable diseases through vaccination. Without these immunization champions, our Arizona communities would be at a much greater risk of infectious disease outbreaks. Last week, we celebrated our own Arizona immunization champion, [...]
2013 Arizona Native American Trauma Report Released
A joint task force made up of representatives from our department and the Arizona American Indian health care community has released the 2013 American Indian Trauma Report. This report highlights the on-going epidemic of trauma in the Native American Community and offers recommendations to decrease the rate of trauma including, incentivizing and expanding data collection capability, use of trauma funding [...]