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 [...]
Hospital Visitation Refresh
Over the last few weeks, we've been working on ways to engage family members in the treatment of patients- as part of our continuing efforts to promote a culture of care at the hospital that reflects recovery and resilience. One of those ways is to make sure that our policies make it easier for family members to visit the hospital... and our teams have been working on [...]
Tempe’s Health Impact Assessment
Your health is influenced by lots of things- genetics, behaviors, and the environment into which you're born, grow, work, and live. A “Health Impact Assessment” is a way of assessing and influencing policy or project decisions to improve health. A simple example is that if your neighborhood has safe, accessible sidewalks or walking or biking paths, you’ll be more likely to be physically active. Health Impact Assessments are used alot in Europe- and [...]
What’s a GASO?
Today is the Great American Smoke Out – started by the American Cancer Society to encourage smokers to quit, even if it is just for one day. Arizona is doing very well compared to the rest of the country when you talk about stopping smoking. Our state is down to 16% of the adult population that smokes - the national [...]