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Last week I wrote about how improving the health of Arizonans is critical to improving the quality of life and reducing health care costs… and that effective strategies are ones that incorporate the principles of population health. A city’s General Plan can be a large public health lever to improve outcomes because it’s the long-range planning [...]
No doubt you’ve heard the term “population health” bandied about these days… especially as the nation wrestles with finding ways to keep people healthier while decreasing health care costs. But what exactly is population health? At its core, population health examines groups of people, their health outcomes, and the elements that influence those outcomes. Examples of things that influence health [...]
Ventanilla de Salud (Health Windows) is a program that improves access to preventive health care, health education, and public health screening at Mexican consular offices throughout the US. There are 5 Ventanillas in AZ (Douglas, Nogales, Phoenix, Tucson, and Yuma). The Ventanillas are operated jointly by the Department of Health of Mexico (Secretaria de Salud [...]
Arizona has a strong history supporting, implementing and sustaining Community Health Workers (CHW). The Arizona Department of Health Services Community Health Worker Program, which operates under the auspices of our Bureau of Tobacco & Chronic Disease, is a core component in our commitment to reaching disparate and underserved populations, has been a critical partner supporting [...]
Every year the March of Dimes releases grades based on the final National Center for Health Statistics data. Arizona received a “B” grade for the 2017 Premature Birth Report Card. While the preterm birth rate worsened in 43 states in 2016, the rate remained the same in Arizona. A premature birth is defined as the [...]
Last year, our Bureau of Epidemiology and Disease Control launched its first mobile app for infectious diseases, the AZ infectious Disease Resource (IDAZ). We’re thrilled to announce that our mobile app team has partnered up with the Office of Injury Prevention to develop the second public health focused app, Healthy Kids AZ! Healthy Kids AZ is a mobile app that [...]
Arizona may be known for its deserts, but forests make up nearly 27 percent of Arizona’s land. Recently, several wildfires have arisen across the state. By June 28, the Goodwin Fire in Yavapai County has spread to more than 20,000 acres. The Saddle Fire has also grown to nearly 5,000 acres in Cochise County. Evacuations [...]
This week Governor Doug Ducey issued a proclamation for Arizona Blood Donation Week highlighting the importance of donating blood to save people’s lives. Back in 1969, an article titled "The Blood Bank as a Public Health Service" described blood donation as an altruistic service: one human helping another. The article suggested that benefits might extend to [...]
Data is an instrumental component of public health that helps us monitor population health, plan and evaluate interventions, and track priorities. One of our most valuable sources of public health data is the annual Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which is a telephone survey that collects data from Arizona adults 18 and older. The BRFSS survey collects data related [...]
Weather hazards like extreme heat, flash flooding, dust storms, and wildfires often occur this time of year in Arizona. Last week, ADHS partnered with ASU to put together an interactive workshop where over 20 representatives from local health departments, environmental services, emergency management, transportation, weather service, and universities discussed weather hazards and the populations most [...]
