Reviewing Child Fatalities Provides Critical Information
One of the ways we create good public health interventions is by studying outcomes. This week, the 20th Annual Child Fatality Review report came out- which examines all 854 deaths of children under the age of 18 in 2012. The Report reviews the circumstances of each child’s death, determines preventability and makes recommendations to save children’s lives moving forward. Although the number of deaths this year is [...]
Valley Fever Awareness
Guest blog by Jessica Rigler, Bureau of Epidemiology and Disease Control 11th Annual Valley Fever Awareness Week Valley Fever is a lung infection caused a fungus in the soil here in Arizona. People get it by breathing in Valley Fever spores in the air. Most people will have no symptoms or recover after a few weeks of flu-like symptoms – [...]
MM “Declaratory Judgment”
A Complaint was filed against the ADHS and others last week. It’s called a “Request for Declaratory Judgment and Permanent and Preliminary Injunction”. It basically asks the Court to declare that: 1) extracts and resins from the marijuana plant are protected in the definition of “Useable Marijuana” under the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act; and 2) dispensaries, patients, caregivers, and agents are from criminal prosecution [...]
AZ Medical Marijuana @ 2
Our Vital Health Statistics team along with our partners at the UA College of Public Health completed our Year 2 Annual Report for the Arizona Medical Marijuana Program last week. You’ll find a wide range of information in the report including data about the demographics and kinds and qualifying conditions of our cardholders, geographic distribution and rates as well as [...]
Undy 5000
Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Arizona. Most of the new diagnoses of the disease are late stage. Discovery in late stage reduces the chance of survival. There’s really no reason for people to die from it – research shows colonoscopies that find polyps can dramatically reduce the chance of dying from colon cancer. So [...]
Regulatory Reform Revolution Continues
One of the things I’m most proud of over the last 5 years has been the way we successfully overhauled our regulation licensed healthcare institutions in AZ. Very few government entities could have accomplished such an all-encompassing regulatory reform effort that creates a new outcome-based system that will improve public health- while maintaining support from the vast majority of our Stakeholders. [...]