Will Humble

/Will Humble

About Will Humble

Will Humble, M.P.H. Director Arizona Department of Health Services

New Draft Medical Marijuana Regulations Out for Public Comment

By | October 15th, 2014|General|

For the last few months we’ve been reviewing our medical marijuana rules to make changes to them in response to an Arizona Superior Court judge’s decision.  In addition to the changes needed to comply with the Court’s ruling, also proposing other changes to the medical marijuana rules that affect qualifying patients, caregivers, and dispensaries that [...]

AZ Ebola Readiness Gap Analysis Underway

By | October 14th, 2014|Preparedness|

The CDC developed an Ebola self-assessment tool for states last week called Top 10 Ebola Response Planning Tips: Ebola Readiness Self-Assessment for State and Local Public Health Officials.  The self-assessment (which is posted on the CDC’s Ebola Website) provides a tool for states to evaluate their overall Ebola readiness.  Our team has been going  through the [...]

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Bids In for Integrated Behavioral Health Contracts

By | October 13th, 2014|Behavioral Health|

Now that we have a new integrated behavioral health care model in Maricopa County, we’ve set our sights on implementing a similar integrated care model in the rest of the state.  Our Procurement Team closed the bidding for the Greater Arizona Behavioral Health RFP last Thursday afternoon. This important procurement solicited bids for providing integrated behavioral and physical [...]

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ADHS Lab Ready to Test for Ebola

By | October 10th, 2014|Preparedness|

Our ADHS Public Health Laboratory has been authorized by the CDC to begin testing blood samples for the  Ebola Virus as needed.  We received an Ebola test kit on Tuesday, completed our proficiency testing Wednesday, and were approved yesterday (Thursday).  The kit can test up to 9 clinical samples for the Ebola Virus.  We used a few of [...]

Help Your Health & Wallet

By | October 9th, 2014|General|

If you’re a “benefits eligible” state employee, you now have a new opportunity to improve your health and your wallet.  This week Benefit Options Wellness launched a new health initiative called the Health Impact Program (HIP).  It’s a point-based incentive program that encourages participation in a variety of wellness activities, while logging progress toward a [...]

Continuing Medical Education for PTSD Treatment

By | October 8th, 2014|General|

A few weeks ago I issued a Director’s Decision that will authorize the use of marijuana (under the AZ Medical Marijuana Act) for patients undergoing treatment for PTSD.  Medical marijuana certifications will be valid only for palliative care (not treatment).  I delayed the implementation date until January 1 to allow time for certifying physicians, dispensary [...]

Newborn Screening Advisory Committee Recommendation: Add SCID

By | October 7th, 2014|Newborn Screening|

Newborn Screening consists of critical laboratory and bedside tests done on newborns to see if they have certain inherited diseases.  Early detection for these specific diseases is critical for the babies, doctors and parents, because delays in treatment can result in irreversible developmental delays, sickness and even death.  With the passage of HB 2491 last [...]

Streamlined “Delayed Birth Certificates” for Native Americans

By | October 6th, 2014|General|

The vast majority of Arizonans are born in hospitals.  Shortly after delivery the electronic paperwork to establish an Arizona birth certificate gets input and processed.  Even babies delivered at home attended by a midwife (about 1% of Arizona births) have their birth certificate information captured and processed. Many years ago, especially in Arizona’s Indian Country, [...]

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Enterovirus D68 Update from CO

By | October 3rd, 2014|Prevention|

This week there’s been some news about kids in Colorado hospitalized with neurologic illness.  At this time, 10 of the kids have been hospitalized with weakness in their limbs, but no cause has been identified.  The neurologic illness could be caused by enteroviorus D68 (4 of the kids have tested positive), but we don’t yet know for [...]

AZ’s Role in the Ebola Response

By | October 2nd, 2014|Preparedness|

This week the CDC confirmed the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the US.  The person had traveled from Liberia to Dallas.  The patient didn’t have symptoms when he left Liberia, but developed them 5 days after arriving in Dallas on September 20 - meaning that folks on the plane have no risk of developing Ebola [...]

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