Please join me in welcoming Cara Christ, MD as our new Division of Licensing Services chief. Cara has agreed to share her talents as the new Assistant Director for Licensing as well as serving as the Agency Chief Medical Officer. Also, thanks a million to Colby Bower who's been doing an excellent job serving as interim director for licensing since Alan [...]
Awhile back, our epidemiology and licensing team of disease detectives including Jason Lempp, Cara Christ, Vinita Oberoi, Jessica Rigler, Ken Komatsu, Kathy McCanna, Connie Belden, Ken Komatsu, and Shoana Anderson learned of a severe case of a Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) through our 24-hour disease reporting system. Our team quickly contacted the county public health department which immediately began an [...]
As I mentioned in my previous post, scientific studies (e.g. experimental v. observational design) have different strengths and weaknesses. Sources of evidence range from case reports at the lower end to well-designed large randomized experimental clinical studies that minimize bias. Relying on poor quality evidence can lead to policy decisions that aren't in patients’ best interests- and it's super important [...]
Medicine and public health have relied on peer-reviewed published scientific literature to help guide progress in patient treatment and public health interventions for decades- even centuries. For example, when we did the fact-finding to inform our decision about whether to add the petitioned conditions to the list of disorders that qualify for AZ medical marijuana cards- [...]
We’re committed to reducing substance abuse in Arizona and we’re consistently reminding the public to get rid of old medication to reduce the number of unintentional poisonings. With more Arizonans dying every year from misuse and abuse of prescription painkillers than car crashes- it's more important than ever to educate health care providers... so we’re hosting a forum to discuss this [...]
One of the key elements of our Strategic Plan is to “Build Public Health Value.” One of the best ways to do that is to tell good stories that capture people’s attention and imagination- stories that highlight the value of public health. During our Division of Licensing’s employee recognition event last week, Larry Martens read [...]
The first thing that you learn in a Toxicology 101 class is the old saying coined by the Renaissance German scientist Paracelsus that: "All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous." We've shortened that to: 'the dose makes the poison". Anyway... a key question for [...]
The Secretario de Salud Publica & the ADHS jointly received the Arizona Mexico Commission’s Paul Fannin award for our public health collaborations last Friday night. This is a top award for the Commission- with the award going to “… an organization that has demonstrated acts of goodwill and support toward the development of the Arizona-Sonora relationship.” It’s named after the [...]
Do you think you can help us in “Promoting Health and Wellness for all Arizonans”. That’s the motto here at ADHS and we are looking for a new leader to join our Behavioral Health team. We’re looking for an Assistant Director who is insightful and can see the forest and trees at the same time. [...]
Update: We were incorrect in the earlier posting about free access to HBO. In fact, if you are not an HBO subscriber, you can watch the documentary online for free here: http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/ We don’t shy away from tough battles in public health. Through the last century, we’ve tackled all types of diseases, worked with public [...]
