In The News: School of Public Health
Health care options for thousands of Nevadans narrowed significantly Monday after health insurer Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield — one of the largest health insurance companies in the U.S. — announced it would withdraw from Nevada’s Obamacare state exchange in 2018. Fourteen counties in Nevada are at risk of not having an insurance provider on the state’s individuals insurance exchange in 2018.
UNLV has appointed Dr. Shawn Gerstenberger as acting dean for its new School of Medicine while founding Dean Barbara Atkinson continues to recover from a July surgery. Gerstenberger will serve in the temporary assignment in addition to his current role as dean for the School of Community Health Sciences at UNLV, a position he has held since 2013.
Just weeks after its initial class, the UNLV School of Medicine appointed an acting dean on Wednesday as founding dean Dr. Barbara Atkinson recovers from surgery. Dr. Shawn Gerstenberger, current dean at the School of Community Health Sciences, will serve as the acting dean.
The U.S. Senate’s draft of a new health care bill promises to cut funding toward Medicaid expansion and cap the program’s budget. Meanwhile, Nevada this month was a signature away from creating a potentially precedent-setting law that would have opened Medicaid coverage to all state residents.
Opponents of Obamacare repeal and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., spoke out today against a GOP-backed Senate health care bill. An estimated 328,000 Nevada residents would lose coverage under a GOP bill, according to a report released today by advocacy group Nevadans Together for Medicaid and compiled by the nonprofit research group Nevada Institute for Children’s Research and Policy. The institute is within the UNLV School of Community Health Sciences.
County health officials have detected a species of mosquito responsible for spreading Zika and other viruses for the first time in Southern Nevada. The detection of the mosquitoes, which go by the scientific name Aedes aegypti, occurred Wednesday within the 89032 ZIP code in North Las Vegas.
Once again, Nevada lands at the bottom of a list, this time ranking the best and worst states for children’s health care. The state finished No. 51 (the study included the District of Columbia) in research by WalletHub, a credit services website. The findings continue a long, depressing tradition for Nevada, which is no stranger to performing poorly in measures of health. However, valley health care professionals say they’re optimistic that medical services for kids are improving in the state, even if it’s happening more slowly than anybody would like.
Counseling patients on exercise, clean eating, and other healthy lifestyle choices plays a significant role in disease prevention and chronic illness management. But, the modern practice of medicine, with its increased demands and time constraints, has made doctors less likely to practice what they preach. By finding ways to stay physically active throughout the day, physicians can improve their own health and productivity, as well as influence patients to adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
800 pinwheels blow in the wind in Carson City, placed in one of the most prominent areas-- the legislative complex. Organizers hope the spinning wheels will bring attention to child abuse and its prevention.
A new study by researchers at the University of Nevada Las Vegas finds that motorists are less likely to yield to Black pedestrians in crosswalks than is the case for White pedestrians. The authors speculate that this may be a reason for the higher rate of fatal pedestrian incidents in the African American community.
A new study from the University of Nevada Las Vegas finds that black pedestrians are twice as likely as white pedestrians to be passed by vehicles while waiting to cross the street at a crosswalk.
Being a pedestrian in the United States is much more dangerous for black, Native American and Hispanic people than for whites. Blacks make up 12.2 percent of the population but accounted for 19.3 percent of all pedestrian deaths in the decade ending in 2014, according to a Smart Growth America study. The situation is even worse for Native Americans, who have 4.5 times the pedestrian fatality rate as whites. Hispanics, meanwhile, make up 16.9 percent of the population but 21.5 percent of these deaths. In fact, the study found that the fatality rates of non-white pedestrians exceeded their share of the population in at least 42 states and the District of Columbia.