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 [...]
Chikungunya Coming Soon?
First there was West Nile virus and then dengue on our doorstep. Now it’s Chikungunya (pronunciation: \chik-en-gun-ye click to hear pronunciation)- which is a new disease threat in the Western hemisphere. Like dengue, this virus is spread by Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitos, causing fever and severe joint pain 3-7 days after a mosquito bite. There’s no cure- just supportive care. Over 4,400 confirmed cases [...]
Dengue and the World Cup
GOOOOAAAAAL!!! With the World Cup just around the corner, soccer fans are dusting off their jerseys and getting ready to cheer on their favorite team. For super-fans lucky enough to travel to Brazil to see the matches first hand, fans of opposing teams aren’t the biggest threat… a mosquito-borne disease is. Dengue, spread by the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus [...]
Administrative Law Judge Recommends Reversing PTSD Decision
Last December I denied a petition to add Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to the list of debilitating medical conditions that qualify people for an Arizona Medical Marijuana Registration Card. I denied the petition because there was a lack of scientific evidence to document whether Cannabis is helpful or not to treat or provide palliative care for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Here’s the [...]