Latest California Healthline Stories
Budget Cuts Could Lead To Slower Results on Tuberculosis Test for Drug-Resistant Strains
State and county public health experts spoke with California Healthline about the effects of state budget cuts on efforts to control tuberculosis in the Bay Area, which accounts for nearly one-fourth of TB cases in the state.
State’s New Catastrophe Response Plan Leaves Nurses Skeptical
Presented as the first of its kind in the nation, California’s comprehensive plan for delivering health care in the event of a major disaster leaves front-line providers — nurses — less than impressed.
Ballot Initiative Filed To Expand Kids’ Coverage
Only weeks after a health care reform plan backed by Gov. Schwarzenegger and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez was rejected, children’s health care advocates have resurrected an effort to increase the state tobacco tax to help pay for children’s health coverage.
Telemedicine Efforts Target Uninsured, Rural Hispanics
Use of telemedicine is becoming a more common way to treat chronic diseases among specific underserved populations, such as Hispanics. Two programs in the state have had early success using the technology to stave off development of more serious and costly conditions among people with diabetes.
Bill Targeting Drug-Resistant Staph Infections Introduced in California Legislature
Sen. Elaine Alquist, who introduced the bill, highlighted the bill’s provisions for California Healthline, and Dr. Henry Chambers of San Francisco General Hospital and Debby Rogers of the California Hospital Association offered their insights.
Funding Crunch Could Stall Progress on Emergency Preparedness in California
Leigh Hall of the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, Mark Horton of the state Department of Public Health and Jeff Levi of the Trust for America’s Health spoke with California Healthline about funding for disaster preparedness.
Study: California To Face Critical Shortage of Allied Health Care Workers by 2020
Abdi Soltani of the Campaign for College Opportunity, Jose Millan of the community college system and Marilyn Chow of Kaiser Permanente spoke with California Healthline about the lack of allied health workers and what can be done about it.
New Laws Aim To Build State’s Cord Blood Supply Through Public Donations, Education
Assembly member Anthony Portantino, Burt Lubin of the National Advisory Council on Blood Stem Cell Transplantation and David Carmel of Stemcyte spoke with California Healthline about new state laws on umbilical cord blood collection.
California Researchers Say New VA Policy Hurts Cancer Studies
The Department of Veterans Affairs maintains that new restrictions on cancer data are intended to shore up patient privacy protections. Researchers argue that the rules will stymie data collection efforts in California, the source of about half of cases reported to a U.S. registry.
California Launches New Public Health Department
Supporters of the move to have a distinct state agency assume responsibility for public health operations hope that it will boost the state’s preparedness, but critics worry that it will lead to complacency about public health issues.