How do we evaluate Arizona’s trauma system, you ask? Good question. Over the next few weeks I’ll blog about “Trauma System Evaluation 101” as well as some of the evaluation tools we use to assess Arizona’s trauma system. The goal of any trauma system is to get the right patient to the right place in [...]
A new report from the CDC shows some good news for older adults in Arizona. According to the report, people in Arizona have a life expectancy of more than 20 years after the age of 65, with 15 of those years healthy. This places Arizona as one of the top states in the nation for [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
September is Childhood Obesity Awareness Month and is a great time for us to take stock of where we are in the "Winnable Battle" of combatting obesity. Last month, we got some good news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that obesity rates in children and adults are leveling off after decades [...]
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, [...]
Last year, a new SARS-like virus called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) broke out in Saudi Arabia. Since then, 94 cases of the very lethal disease have been reported by the World Health Organization (50% of the cases have been fatal). All the cases have been on the Arabian Peninsula. The virus causes severe [...]
We finally got some better news from the childhood obesity public health front this week. Tuesday’s CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that childhood obesity rates are stabilizing or decreasing slightly across the country. In fact, 19 states had a significant downward trend in obesity prevalence among low-income preschoolers. There was no change in [...]
Increasing the percentage of women that choose to breastfeed is a critical evidence-based practice for addressing the childhood obesity epidemic. Here in Arizona, we have a lot to celebrate during World Breastfeeding Week- because of our collective work to increase breastfeeding is paying off. Arizona’s percentage of babies who begin breastfeeding has jumped to 83% [...]
Monsoon rain and humidity is great (at least I think so)… but with it comes mosquitoes that carry the West Nile virus. Every year since West Nile virus was introduced to AZ in ‘04, we’ve had human cases of West Nile Virus (meaning it’s endemic now). The total number of cases bumps around every year from [...]
