Thanks for giving your all over the last year. I know it hasn’t been easy. We’ve been though a lot over the last year with budget reductions, furloughs, short staffing and other uncertainty- yet you’ve remained committed to our mission, stayed at your post and helped move our mission ahead for the people of Arizona. [...]
If you picked up a U.S. Vital Statistics edition in say 1940, you’d notice an emphasis on stillbirth statistics in the maternal and child health sections. Today while infant mortality (rather than stillbirths) receives more attention as a sentinel indicator of maternal and child health, it’s still significant. You may recall reading in a previous [...]
Today is World AIDS Day – an opportunity to remember those impacted by HIV/AIDS, look back at its history and toward future developments that may prevent limit its spread. HIV was first identified in the United States in 1981. In the early 1980’s, public health efforts focused heavily on identification of the virus. Once the [...]
Our Arizona Cancer Center has developed a highly interactive new website using state-of-the-art GIS technology. This nifty new website lets the public and researchers access cancer data by communities (Community Health Analysis Areas). It allows easy access to age adjusted incidence rates and counts for 13 cancers that have public health implications. The website visualizes [...]
Our Raise Your Voice Behavioral Health Forums are going quite well. You’ll remember that our objective for the Forums is to help us transform our behavioral health system for the better. Our behavioral health team has been traveling to most parts of the state to hold focus groups including 14 in Maricopa County and focus [...]
I get this question a lot from folks. While Congress has determined that it’s illegal to distribute and sell marijuana, several states have passed laws authorizing the distribution and use of marijuana for medical purposes. Arizona will likely be the 15th state to do so if the election is certified today (November 29). So, in [...]
California has had 6,400 + cases of whooping cough (pertussis) and 10 infant deaths so far in 2010, which is the highest number of cases they've had since the age of immunizations began (about 60 years ago). Meanwhile, Arizona has had 361 cases and no deaths in 2010 compared to 277 cases in all of 2009. Even [...]
One thing that folks have mentioned on my blog over and over is concern about who will need to submit fingerprints as part of their application under the AZ Medical Marijuana Act. Here’s the short answer: All applicants except a qualifying patient will need to submit a full set of fingerprints before getting a card [...]
A couple of weeks ago I planned to open the docket to overhaul the Administrative Code (Rules) that we use to evaluate and monitor health and safety in licensed behavioral health facilities in AZ. That plan was based on the assumption that the Medical Marijuana Act was going down to defeat because at that time [...]
By now you probably know that Proposition 203, the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act, appears to have passed after all (although the final determination will actually be made when the election is certified on November 29). The Act identifies ADHS as the organization that’s responsible for carrying out the provisions of the law. There will be several [...]
