public health
Tolland County healthiest in CT; New Haven County least healthy
According to County Health Rankings and Roadmaps, overall residents of Tolland County are the healthiest in our state, but there is wide variation between measures. For instance Tolland County scored lowest among CT counties in physical environment with the highest rate of drinking water violations and long commutes driving alone. Tolland County is lowest in…
Read MoreCTNJ Op-Ed: McDonald’s rejects chicken fed antibiotics
An Op-Ed today in CT News Junkie celebrates McDonald’s for refusing to sell food from chickens fed antibiotics. 23,000 Americans die each year from antibiotic-resistant superbug infections. Over use and inappropriate use of antibiotics has led many bacteria to become resistant (superbugs), rendering critical antibiotics useless. Experts are concerned that development of new antibiotics is…
Read MoreQuestionable Hartford flu numbers
A fascinating piece from CT by the Numbers digs into why conflicting reports find over 150,000 flu cases in Hartford for one week, in a city with 125,000 residents. Bottom line: Don’t believe everything you read in an ad.
Read MoreCT fourth healthiest state
In this year’s report, America’s Health Rankingsfinds CT residents are healthier than residents of all but three other states, up from 7th in the last two years. Our strengths include a very low smoking rate, low teen birth rate, and a high rate of dental visits. Our challenges are a very troubling high rate of…
Read MoreFDA Advisory Committee recommends streamlining approval for tools to fight super bugs
Yesterday the FDA anti-infective drug advisory committee recommended streamlining approval processes for antibiotics that target super bugs. Decades of overtreatment have escalated bacterial resistance to known drugs – super bugs. CDC estimates that 2 million Americans are infected and 23,000 die of infections by antibiotic-resistant bugs annually. The answers are better hygiene, especially in hospitals…
Read MoreNovember CT Health Policy Webquiz: Avoidable hospitalizations in CT
Test your knowledge about avoidable hospitalizations in CT. Take the November CT Health Policy Webquiz.
Read MoreOut-of-the-box ideas to solve problems
A clip from Crowd Control, a new National Geographic channel show, puts innovative thinking to work solving problems. This clip highlights a novel idea to trick New Yorkers into taking the stairs instead of an escalator. Notice that no one knows they are exercising or doing “the right thing” – they are just having fun.…
Read MoreMoving video and panel on the opiod addiction epidemic, with policy options to address the problem
This morning’s standing-room-only panel at CSG/ERC’s annual meeting in Baltimore on the epidemic of opiod addiction combined emotion with constructive options for policymakers. We first watched part of The Hungry Heart, a movie about the rising toll of addiction on rural communities and heard from a former addict and a physician from the movie.…
Read MoreJune CT Health Policy Webquiz: CT hospital community benefits
Test your knowledge about community benefits at Connecticut hospitals. Take the June CT Health Policy Webquiz.
Read MoreMalloy signs bills allowing for-profit hospital conversions and not allowing e-cigarettes for minors
Among the 23 bills signed by Gov. Malloy yesterday was SB-35which eases CT hospitals’ conversion to for-profit status, however with more restrictions and protections for patients and workers. The Governor also signed SB-24making the sale of e-cigarettes to minors illegal.
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