Turning the Tide on Dialysis Infections
Our 2nd annual ADVICE Collaborative II (called Turning the Tide on Infections) was held on May 17. Over 168 attendees representing the dialysis provider community, ADHS licensing, ADHS infectious disease services and Healthcare Associated Infections Advisory Committee End Stage Renal Disease Subcommittee continued their learning, sharing and networking to improve infection control performance in dialysis centers. Tamara Hoxworth from the Colorado Department of [...]
New (Higher) Fish Consumption Recommendations for Pregnant Women
Last week the FDA & EPA announced new draft fish consumption recommendations for women who are pregnant or breast-feeding. The new recommendations recommend at least 2 servings of low-mercury seafood every week. The recommendations are a big shift for the FDA & EPA- whose previous seafood advisory in 2004 set only an upper limit on the amount of fish that these [...]
Men’s Health Week
This week is Men’s Health Week, which is typically celebrated the week before Father’s Day. The health observance week is important to bring attention to the health issues men face, but we know staying healthy is a lifelong process. Year round we focus on men’s health issues through our Man Up Arizona blog. The blog was started several years ago [...]
Newborn Screening Team Beats Deadline
Ben Franklin said: "Critics are our friends, they show us our faults". A true statement. When a reporter from Wisconsin wrote a story about newborn screening turn-around times around the country, we found out that we had room for improvement when it comes to the time it takes newborn metabolic screening samples to get from AZ hospitals to our Lab. Basically, it was taking too long for the samples [...]
New Evidence-based Child Safety Toolkit for Parents
CDC's Division of Violence Prevention just released a new toolkit that gives parents ways to interact more positively with their children. It’s called "Essentials for Parenting Toddlers and Preschoolers" and it’s a free evidence-based resource that is based on the best available evidence and designed for parents with children aged 2 to 4. The resource also provides answers to common parenting [...]
New Medical Marijuana Regulations on the Way
Last summer a Superior Court judge decided that a portion of our medical marijuana regulations are unreasonable because our rules don’t have a process for dispensary registration certificate holders to renew their dispensary registration certificate if they didn’t earn their approval to operate within 1 year. That ruling requires us to change our medical marijuana regulations, and while we’re at it, we’ll [...]