MTV Reality Show may be Reducing Teen Pregnancies
The popular MTV TV shows called 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom appear to be contributing to declines in the U.S. teen birth rate according to new research released this week by economists at the University of Maryland and Wellesley College. 16 and Pregnant is essentially a documentary series focusing on teen pregnancy. Each episode follows the life of a [...]
Influenza is Widespread in Arizona
Influenza has been steadily spreading in Arizona over the last few weeks and this week we hit the Widespread Influenza threshold. In fact, the number of cases increased by 50% this week- and several Arizona emergency departments are backed up with substantial wait times. CDC’s report is due to come out Friday… but I’d guess that most states will also report widespread activity. H1N1, [...]
What’s the Medical “Standard of Care” in an Emergency?
Good question. Disasters and public health emergencies can stress health care systems to the breaking point and disrupt delivery of vital medical services. For example- hospitals and long-term care facilities may be without power; trained staff, ambulances, medical supplies, and beds could be in short supply; and alternate care facilities may need to be used. You can imagine how difficult [...]
Special Needs Emergency Preparedness Manual
The first link in the chain of survival during a public health disaster is people taking responsibility for their own family’s safety. Being prepared at home is the first line of defense. Families that have family members with special needs sometimes need to have more detailed plans to ensure that their needs will be met during those critical first hours [...]
6.4 Trillion Calories
Can you picture 6.4 trillion calories? That’s the number of fewer calories sold by 16 major food companies in the last 5 years. The companies include names like Campbell’s Soup and the Coca-Cola Company. All are part of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation and have pledged to remove calories from their products as a public health intervention. A study published last [...]
Medical Marijuana News
We published our mid-year update of the medical marijuana annual report this week. It contains different data than our standard annual report in that we’re reporting aggregate dispensary transaction data. In the report you’ll see that there were about 422,000 transactions made at dispensaries in ‘13 among the 40,000 patients (about 10 transactions/patient/year). Dispensaries sold 2,700 Kg of marijuana in [...]