While the incidence of autism spectrum disorder has increased in recent years, what’s behind it remains relatively mysterious and even controversial. But a major study could shed new light on some of the maternal health factors that may increase children’s risk of developing the condition.
Prescription painkiller abuse is drawing national attention as states battle increasing abuse cases, presidential candidates offer possible solutions and even President Barack Obama includes the issue in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
The Task Force on the Future of Public Health, notable for its congeniality and lack of bickering, had its first public squabbles during its final face-to-face meeting before turning over what it now calls its “Modernization of Public Health” proposal to the 2015 legislature.
With a report due to the Oregon legislature soon, the Governor’s Task Force on the Future of Public Health sent its smaller workgroup back to work on a single straw man model focused on waves of voluntary regionalization even as one Oregon county seeks to get out of the public health business alt
OPINION – APRIL 19, 2013 -- On May 3, ballots will be sent to all Portland voters asking them to vote on fluoridation. The last day to vote will be May 21.
February 7, 2013 -- A bill that would allow exterminators to keep secret information about bedbug outbreaks passed the House Health Committee Wednesday without opposition.
January 16, 2013 -- Asking for a show of hands during a breakout session on public health and coordinated care at last week's conference on Transforming Care, Chris Palmedo, director of public affairs at Northwest Health Foundation, said, “How many people believe the current system integrates care in a way that maximizes public health?”
Not a single hand went up among the 150 or so people present.
January 2, 2013 -- Growing up in southwest Portland – and later studying political science at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. – Tricia Tillman didn't realize public health was an occupation, much less the one where she’d end up.
“I kind of stumbled into public health,” Tillman said. “I didn't know it was a field at all.”
December 13, 2012 -- Last week, Jennifer Bevacqua, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Randall Children's Hospital at Legacy Emmanuel Medical Center, treated a boy who was a year and a half old and had what Bevacqua described as eye motion issues, which can indicate a brain tumor. After being informed that he’d need an emergency MRI, his grandmother – who was the boy's primary caregiver and had taken him to the hospital – called her boss to ask if she could stay with her grandson while he received the care he needed.
December 4, 2012 -- An advocacy coalition of healthcare and public health organizations is seeking legislative support next session on a proposal to spend Oregon’s share of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) funds on prevention and community based-health initiatives.
The Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, signed by Oregon and 45 other states in 1998, was designed to help states recover some of the tobacco-related healthcare costs and to prevent tobacco from taking even more lives.
