Health Beats: February 17, 2010
February 17, 2010 | Steph
Beats this week:
1) Over the weekend, patients began lining up before dawn at a dentist office in the Logan Square community of Chicago to receive free dental care. The annual event, which is hosted by Dentists With Heart, drew a line of several hundred people.
2) This week, the New York Times reported that after an extended quiet period, the U.S. is finally seeing a surge in medical schools. Could this be a response to the need for primary care providers? Beats Per Minute discussed this very issue last month.
3) Wondering why no one is talking about H1N1 anymore? The Centers for Disease Control is! The CDC says that H1N1 cases are down but reported that from April 2009 through January 2010, the U.S. saw 57 million possible cases, 257,000 hospitalizations and 11,690 deaths.
4) A study released this week found that over the last three decades chronic conditions have significantly increased in children. In fact, from 1994 to 2006 the percentage of children with chronic conditions, such as asthma, obesity and behavioral health issues, nearly doubled. The highest rates of chronic conditions were found in Latino and African American children.
5) It was announced this week that two Illinois universities will receive federal stimulus money to invest in electronic medical records technology. Last month, Erie Family Health Center completed the implementation of electronic health records at all of our nine sites. Read about it here!
Tags: chicago, childhood obesity, dental services, EHRS, Erie, H1N1, health research, News, primary care
February 18th, 2010
Regarding Steph’s #5 — 2 Illinois Universities will receive federal grants to promote electronic health records technology. Erie Family Health Center is involved in this project with Northwestern University, one of the grant recipients. The Alliance of Chicago Community Health Services, a partnership between Near North Health Services, Howard Brown Health Center, Heartland Health Outreach and Erie, brings the community component to Northwestern’s project. The Alliance is a major partner in helping Northwestern to create a new Regional Extension Center for health information technology in Chicago. The Alliance provides the vision, technology and support for Erie’s electronic health record implementation and has helped over 20 health centers nation wide “go live.” Congratulations to the Alliance. http://www.alliancechicago.org