Pam Irwin, Executive Director of the Capital Medical Society Foundation, presented a check for $4,000 to Dena Strickland, President of the Big Bend Hospice Foundation on July 18, 2022.

As Florida grapples with nearly 2,000 overdose deaths so far this year, state leaders on Wednesday announced a “massive” effort to address opioid addiction in counties that need it most.

The initiative, which includes Florida’s first statewide director of opioid recovery, is based on a pilot treatment program in Palm Beach County that state health officials touted as a success.

The Biden administration has declared the current monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency in the US, in addition to the ongoing COVID pandemic that’s still killing more than 300 people every day.

The decision comes about two weeks after the World Health Organization deemed the monkeypox outbreak, which has been recorded in 87 countries, a public health emergency of international concern.

HCA Healthcare’s foundation awarded a $200,000 grant to the Tallahassee Chamber Of Commerce, as first reported by the Tallahassee Democrat. The funding will be utilized to educate and develop a stream of healthcare workers in Florida’s capital, which like the rest of the state, is experiencing a severe shortage of healthcare professionals.

The Democrat reports that the grant will go directly to the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce’s World Class Schools initiative in order to assist a separate Talent Pipeline Management effort.

According to the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce, there are currently more than 2,200 healthcare job vacancies in the Tallahassee region, including critical roles like physicians, physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners.

One injection of a candidate monoclonal antibody (mAb) known as L9LS was found to be safe and highly protective in U.S. adults exposed to the malaria parasite, according to results from a National Institutes of Health Phase 1 clinical trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Additional clinical trials evaluating if L9LS can prevent malaria over six to 12 months against seasonal and perennial transmission are underway in infants and children in Mali and Kenya, where malaria is endemic. The trial was sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of NIH

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei (B. pseudomallei) for the first time in the environment in the continental United States. This bacterium causes a rare and serious disease called melioidosis. B. pseudomallei was identified through environmental sampling of soil and water in the Gulf Coast region of southern Mississippi during an investigation of two human melioidosis cases.

It is unclear how long the bacterium has been in the environment prior to 2020 or how widespread the bacterium is in the continental United States; modeling suggests that the environmental conditions found in the Gulf Coast states are conducive to the growth of B. pseudomallei. Extensive environmental sampling is needed to answer these questions.

The Health Alert Network (HAN) Health Advisory serves to alert clinicians and public health officials throughout the country to consider melioidosis in patients whose clinical presentation is compatible with signs and symptoms of the disease, regardless of travel history to international disease-endemic regions, as melioidosis is now considered to be locally endemic in areas of the Gulf Coast region of Mississippi.

Florida first lady Casey DeSantis launched a statewide initiative in Jacksonville on Wednesday that aims to consolidate statewide resources for cancer patients and survivors.

Florida Cancer Connect, which lives primarily through its hub at FLCancerConnect.com, is a collaboration of the first lady's with the Florida Department of Health and the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

No state funding was appropriated for the project, which was done within the purview and funding already allocated to the two organizations, according to AHCA Secretary Simone Marstiller.

"This is what our agencies are here to do," she said.

An orthopedic surgeon in Florida caused “hundreds of devastating injuries” while his hospital ignored complaints from patients for years after he started displaying signs of a progressive neurological disorder, according to court documents.

Between 2016 and 2020, patients noticed Dr. Richard David Heekin slurring his words and having “difficulty with balance, inability to concentrate, angry outbursts, erratic behavior, gait disturbances and impaired judgment and mood,” according to court documents.

The corporate takeover of medicine continues to accelerate at an alarming pace. According to research conducted by the Physicians Advocacy Institute and Avalere Health, more than 75% of physicians are now employed by hospitals, health systems, and other corporate entities. The recent announcement of Amazon purchasing One Medical for $3.9 billion may be the most glaring example of this paradigm shift.

Critical care physician assistants earned an average of $122,832 in 2021, making it the highest paid specialty, according to the American Academy of Physician Associates 2022 Salary Report released July 29 and shared with Becker's.

When I hear discussions about special rules for working with millennials or Gen-Z, I often think it's silly and contrived. That said, I think there are several observations worth noting.

Two California healthcare institutions were named in a class-action lawsuit filed July 25 claiming that patients' private medical data was used to target them with Facebook ads.

The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) updated New Yorkers on polio in New York State. Following the identification of a case of polio in a Rockland County resident, NYSDOH launched wastewater surveillance, among other detection efforts, to check for signs of the virus. Following analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the polio virus was detected in samples from June in Rockland County. These findings underscore the critical importance of vaccination to protect all New Yorkers and New York children against polio.

Tuesday, September 20, 2022 – 6:00 PM

Maguire Center for Lifelong Learning at Westminster Oaks

Live 1-Hour CME Presented by:

Danny Estupiñán, MD, MS

Tallahassee Neurological Clinic, PA

click here.

Does your workday start before dawn and end well after dusk? Do you go to bed tired and wake up the same way? Maybe it’s time you talk to someone who can help you make positive changes for a healthier, happier life and lifestyle. The CMS has six professional counselors who are available to you - free of charge - free of worry. This program remains one of the few in the state that serves all local practicing physicians, and now, also TMH Residents, without cost, without question. Six sessions annually are completely confidential and autonomous. 

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