We rolled out a new electronic birth certificate system this week that will be a game-changer for public health. Our system (which took about 18 months to plan, create & launch) will help us collect better surveillance data for our Winnable Battles like obesity, tobacco use, substance abuse, and better data about birth outcomes that will help [...]
The benefit of everything is determined by dosage. Even water, a critical element for life, is bad for the human body when you have too much. But when it comes to prescription drugs, the dosage is incredibly important. Doctors spend years learning about which medications work for what and how much is the right dose. [...]
Medical providers (doctors, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, etc.) are invited to join Magellan for their Driving Suicides to Zero training Monday, April 29 from 9 to 11 a.m. or 1 to 3 p.m. The goal of the training is to help reduce the suicide rate by providing behavioral healthcare professionals with the skills, knowledge, attitudes [...]
As part of our strategic plan, we name 5 winnable battles to prioritize over the next 1-3 years. While not de-emphasizing work in other areas, this is an important effort to achieve measurable impact quickly in a few targeted areas. We’ve identified five areas as key domestic winnable battles for improving our state’s health, based [...]
Each year in the US there are 1.7 million health care associated infections that cause approximately 99,000 deaths in US hospitals. There are lots of germs that can cause health care associated infections, but 16% are in the really bad category because they’re resistant to antibiotics. These multidrug-resistant organisms pose huge problems once they get [...]
This week I'm looking at what you are sure to hear a lot about in the coming three years. The CDC, led by Dr. Thomas Frieden, will be strategically addressing 5 "winnable battles" in public health. So far, I told you about Healthcare associated infections, childhood obesity and preventing smoking. We can make a difference [...]
This week, I'm sharing the CDC's 5 Winnable Battles as set forth by the new head of the CDC), Dr. Frieden. During the next 3 years, CDC will be increasingly focusing its strategic planning on public health and policy interventions to help win the 5 “Winnable Battles”. There’s not much on the CDC’s website yet [...]
I was in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago for new health officer orientation and was able to meet with Dr. Frieden (the new head of the CDC) a couple of times. Each time that we met he referred to a general theme that the CDC will be using over the next 3 years to drive [...]
