LA County Launches Coordinated Effort At Clinics To Curb Opioid Epidemic
As part of a countywide initiative, 80 public and private urgent care clinics will now follow guidelines — established by the American Academy of Emergency Medicine — that advise health care providers on how to address pain management without immediately turning to opioids.
KPCC:
Effort To Fight Opioid Abuse Spreads To 80 LA County Urgent Care Clinics
Amidst a national epidemic of prescription opioid abuse, 80 public and private urgent care clinics across Los Angeles County will now follow guidelines designed to combat overuse of the powerful pain medications, the county public health department announced Friday. The move will help address a surge in patients asking for opioids at urgent care clinics, says Dr. Gary Tsai, medical director for the Substance Abuse Prevention and Control division of the L.A. County Department of Public Health. The increase in drug seekers came after all 76 emergency departments in L.A. County adopted the same prescription guidelines last year, he says. (Plevin, 7/1)
In other public health news —
The Sacramento Bee:
LGBT Community Aims To Trim Its Higher Tobacco Use
When Bill Gruenloh moved to Sacramento from St. Louis 10 years ago, he headed to the easiest place to meet people and make friends – the local gay bar. Then 24 and a smoker since his teens, he hoped that a healthy West Coast lifestyle, and the state ban on smoking in many public areas, would help him shake his addiction once and for all. But when he walked into the Mercantile Saloon and other midtown haunts sporting the rainbow flag, he was quickly offered a light. (Caiola, 7/4)
The Fresno Bee:
Northeast Fresno Water Issues Confound City, State Investigators
Hundreds of homes in northeast Fresno have discolored water – and, in some cases, excessive levels of toxic lead – coming from their faucets. And while homeowners clamor for answers about why and what to do about it, those answers are in painfully short supply. There are a couple of common denominators to the cases: Homes that are plumbed with galvanized iron pipe and which also receive drinking water from the city’s northeast surface water treatment plant. (Sheehan, 7/4)
KPCC:
USC Plays A Role In National Cancer Moonshot Program
USC is involved in two of the new initiatives unveiled at last week's White House Cancer Moonshot summit. One is a crowd sourcing platform created by Peter Kuhn, a USC professor of biological science, medicine and biomedical engineering. CancerBase, as it's called, is a collaboration of patients, USC and Stanford University scientists and social media companies. It aims to create a real-time, global "cancer map" from patient data submitted anonymously through Facebook, according to USC spokeswoman Emily Gersema. (O'Neill, 7/5)
KQED:
DNA Offers A Clue Into Why Some People Are More Sociable And Trusting
A new study has found a genetic difference that might explain at least part of this spectrum of sociability. It might even help us understand how someone can go from being shy as a child to outgoing as an adult or vice versa. The gene involved, the oxytocin gene, makes perfect sense as it is intimately involved in sociability. It has the instructions for making the hormone oxytocin and this hormone forges bonds when falling in love, plays a critical role in mother-child bonding and improves people’s ability to read emotions accurately in the face of another person. Oxytocin isn’t the whole story, but it is almost certainly a piece in these puzzles. (Starr, 7/1)