The FDA approved the 2011-2012 influenza vaccine this week. The strains in this year’s vaccine were recommended by the CDC and the World Healthy Organization after studying virus samples collected from around the world to find the influenza viruses that are the most likely to cause illness during the upcoming flu season. The strains selected [...]
The next time you’re in Mexico- keep your eye out for their “Cinco Pasos” wellness program. The federal secretary of health and each of the state health departments in Mexico are actively participating in the new wellness campaign. It’s an easy-to-understand 5-step program that encourages their citizens to take simple steps to improve their health [...]
June was a milestone for the future of medicine in Arizona. Maricopa Integrated Health Services (MIHS), the District Medical Group (DMG) and the University of Arizona School of Medicine Phoenix Campus joined forces to enhance medical education in AZ. MIHS will be the primary training and teaching hospital for the students at UA Phoenix medical campus. [...]
CDC has developed new and easy-to-use resources for preventing infections in outpatient treatment facilities. The Infection Prevention Guide and Prevention Checklist is posted on the new CDC website for outpatient care facilities.
We’re excited to roll out the new cottage industry food law . You can see the new statute at A.R.S. 36-136(H)(4)(g). It’ll provide self-employment opportunities to folks that might not otherwise be able to find work and for supplemental income for others that have a great recipe. The new law allows folks to bake food (not considered “potentially [...]
We know from research that the first five years of a child’s life are incredibly important. The brain is still being formed, and we have the chance to impact a kid’s whole life by building a strong foundation. One of the best places for public health to get involved is through child care. At ADHS, [...]
If you're like me, and your high school teen asks for help with math, you probably said to yourself or them “what the heck is that? I can’t help you- you’ll have to read the chapter”. The math work might seem harder today partly because today’s teens weren’t lead poisoned like my generation was (people in their late 40’s and [...]
One of our primary objectives over the last couple of years in behavioral health has been to shift the focus of our performance measures away from process and procedures toward actual outcomes. In other words, we don’t want to measure our success on whether someone’s paperwork is right, but on whether the services we provide [...]
It’s time to step up to the plate if you’re interested in providing clear and concise information about how best to integrate primary and acute healthcare with behavioral health care for folks with serious mental illnesses in Arizona. One of our top priorities in behavioral health over the coming years will be to better integrate [...]
With all the fire response activity this week- I thought I’d do a piece on the framework that we’re all using for our response activities. We use the National Incident Management System (NIMS) to guide and organize all of our responses because it provides a systematic, proactive structure with which to organize response activities. Many [...]
