Kick the Habit
This month the Arizona Smokers’ Helpline expanded its arsenal of resources to help smokers quit tobacco with the addition of the Call it Quits app which debuted on ASHLine's Facebook page this week and will soon be introduced as an iPhone app. The Call It Quits app on Facebook and iPhone are another free tool brought to you by the ASHLine to help smokers win their battle against tobacco. The Arizona Smokers’ Helpline, which has [...]
Our Next Rulemaking Adventure
We’ll be kicking off our newest Rulemaking Adventure on Monday... when we begin the process of putting together Rules for our Licensing shop that streamline and support healthcare integration- allowing the flexibility for healthcare institutions to provide a blend of physical and behavioral health services. The idea is to put together licensing rules that are flexible and allow various integrated healthcare models. [...]
To Sample or Not to Sample…
… is often the question when it comes to common indoor air quality questions or in response to a communicable disease outbreak (or diagnoses) in the workplace. The answer is not to sample (almost without exception). A good case study came up this week when a library and high school were closed after some environmental sampling (conducted after somebody was [...]
Who is John Doll?
Almost 40 years ago, Dr. John M. Doll came to work at ADHS and left quite a legacy. His philosophy about researching and publishing data that can be used to make a difference lives on... even though he passed away. Every year, epidemiologists in Public Health Prevention submit the papers they have published to an internal committee to earn the annual [...]
Thanksgiving Food Safety
We have 2 peak periods for foodborne illnesses in Arizona. One peak is in the summer months because it’s so stinkin’ hot and food gets out of temperature. The other peak is between Thanksgiving and the New Year. We’re not sure why we have an increase if foodborne illnesses from now until the end of the year- but it probably [...]
Outcomes- Public Health’s Lighthouse
One of our primary goals over the last couple of years has been to shift the focus of our performance measures toward actual outcomes. In other words, we don’t want to measure our success on simple activities like whether we did an intervention, placed an ad, or whether someone’s paperwork is right- but on whether our interventions and services actually [...]