General

“No Place Like Home” Conference

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:09-07:00September 12th, 2013|General|

In early 2012, Arizona set the ambitious goal of reducing the statewide hospital readmission rate by 20% and averting 4,000 avoidable hospital readmissions. Curious to find out what we accomplished by working together? Interested in learning about extraordinary best practices from all provider settings that may take your organization from ordinary to extraordinary? Would you [...]

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Hospital Associated Infection Report

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:09-07:00September 11th, 2013|General|

The 5 most common hospital-acquired infections cost the U.S. health care system almost $10B a year, according to a new study by Harvard researchers. The study was published online in JAMA Internal Medicine this week. According to CDC, one out of every 20 patients admitted to a hospital will pick up an infection while there. Central [...]

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What’s Sarin Gas?

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:09-07:00September 10th, 2013|General|

Acetylcholine is a chemical in your body called a neurotransmitter that allows nerves to communicate with other nerves, glands, and muscles. It works in your body in tandem with acetylcholinesterase, which is the enzyme used to break down the acytylcholine. It's like a tennis volley... the two chemicals work hand in hand to keep your nerves operating right. [...]

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Cyclosporiasis

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:10-07:00September 10th, 2013|General|

One tropical disease that you might have heard in the news lately is cyclosporiasis. This summer, cyclosporiasis was the cause of a multistate outbreak that hit Texas, Iowa and Nebraska the hardest. Cyclosporiasis is a diarrheal illness caused by the single-celled protozoan, Cyclospora cayetanensis. Like most protozoa, people can become infected with Cyclospora by consuming food or water contaminated [...]

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First Camels- Now Bats?

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:10-07:00September 6th, 2013|General|

MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus) is back in the news again this week. Two weeks ago, I mentioned The Lancet study that identified the potential link between dromedary camels and MERS. Last week, a new animal has been found with a potential link to MERS… the bat. An article in Emerging Infectious Diseases describes a study [...]

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Filariasis

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:10-07:00September 5th, 2013|General, Preparedness, Prevention|

I thought I’d do a series on some interesting tropical diseases over the next few weeks. Let’s start with a disease called filariasis- which can cause something called elephantiasis. You’ve probably heard of a disease in dogs called heartworm. It’s caused by tiny thread-like worms called microfilariae. Like many diseases, there’s a similar disease that [...]

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Medical Marijuana Edibles

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:10-07:00September 4th, 2013|General|

Last week I posted a blog that points out that the words "Marijuana" in the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act and "Cannabis" in the Arizona Criminal Code have different definitions... and that the distinction may be an important one for Qualifying Patients. The major difference is that the definition of "Useable Marijuana" in AMMA includes “… dried flowers [...]

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Local Suicide Prevention Day Event

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:10-07:00September 4th, 2013|General|

We and Magellan Health Services of Arizona will host a webinar-based panel discussion on suicide prevention and intervention entitled "Closing the Gap to Zero Suicides" on World Suicide Prevention Day (Sept. 10). The webinar will feature a panel of leaders from our team, Magellan, and the Veterans Administration. The discussion will run from 10 - 11 [...]

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What’s Community Paramedicine?

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:10-07:00September 3rd, 2013|General|

Community paramedicine is a paradigm shift for the use of paramedics in the US. It’s an emerging model in which paramedics function outside their usual emergency response & transport roles- delving into the world of primary care. As the health care world increasingly shifts toward prevention and well care- the system will increasingly demand more folks [...]

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CDC Sortable Stats

By Will Humble|2017-02-10T09:50:11-07:00September 2nd, 2013|General|

There’s a new CDC Sortable Stats web application that went live a couple of weeks ago that provides an interactive tool to analyze behavioral risk factors and health indicators compiled from various published CDC and federal sources. You can search by state for things like death rates (e.g. infant mortality, heart disease, motor vehicle death rates, [...]

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