January 10, 2012
[AUDIO] By Farah Dosani – A growing number of Americans are visiting other countries to get dental work at a fraction of the price. Saving 50% or more on a crown or root canal can be attractive, but it’s hard to gauge the quality and safety of these clinics thousands of miles away. Unlike medical tourism, no international inspection body exists specifically for dental care. People must try to do their own research – relying on phone calls, the internet and anecdotes.
December 22, 2011
[AUDIO] By Dalia Colón – Barbara Emmons is sitting in a pew at St. Michael’s Church in Clearwater. She’s attended Mass here for the past decade. But for most of those years, she could barely make out what was going on – even with hearing aids in both ears. “It was very difficult,” says Emmons, 76. “I used to sit down front so that I could see the priest’s mouth and pick up words.” That was before the church installed a hearing loop. Here’s how Mass sounded to Emmons before:
November 22, 2011
[AUDIO] By Dalia Colón – If caregiving had a soundtrack, what genre would it be? Folk? Oldies? Gospel? How ’bout hip-hop with a reggae twist? That’s the feel of Perfect Harmony, a new song that celebrates caregivers. Here’s a taste:
April 21, 2011
[AUDIO] By Sammy Mack – Lo! What news is this? April is National Poetry Month and poets across Florida have been celebrating our lives in verse. Not to be left out of the festivities, HealthyState.org brings you this story about the relationship between health and poetry.
March 24, 2011
My Story [BLOG] By Dalia Colón – If this series had a theme song, it’d be Michael Jackson’s Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.
March 15, 2011
[AUDIO] By Farah Dosani – More than 65 million Americans live in areas without enough primary care providers – and the shortage is only expected to get worse. But health care reform is working to change that by expanding the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) – a federal program that helps pay for aspiring primary care clinicians. But they must work in areas where they’re needed most.
February 21, 2011
[AUDIO] By Farah Dosani – When it comes to treating terminal illness, palliative care is often seen as the end of the road, focusing on quality of life rather than cure. It’s usually integrated in a patient’s final days or weeks in the form of hospice care. A recent study shows that palliative care can not only help people live better, but also longer. Those in the field call for changing the way we view and use this so-called “end-of-life” care, saying it should be introduced earlier in patient care.
February 16, 2011
[AUDIO] By Dalia Colón - Danielle Rose was taking up to 15 Roxicodone pills a day when she discovered she was pregnant. She’d been taking the painkillers without a prescription for years, buying them off the street, stealing them from her mother and using an old back injury to get doctors to prescribe them to her. “That’s my way out,” Rose, now 27, remembers telling herself. “That’ll make me get off drugs.” But addiction doesn’t work that way.
February 7, 2011
[BLOG] By Dalia Colón – Did you catch Gov. Rick Scott‘s big announcement this afternoon? From a tea party event in Eustis, Scott revealed his plan to balance Florida’s budget. For the next two years in Tallahassee, it’s all about the Washingtons. In 2011-12, Scott plans to cut state spending by about $5 billion and reduce property and business taxes by another $2 billion. A nice chunk of that money — $4 billion — will come from cuts to Medicaid.
February 4, 2011
[AUDIO] By Sammy Mack – Is the suspense of the Super Bowl killing you? Depends on whether or not your team wins.
February 3, 2011
[AUDIO] By Euna Lhee – MIAMI – It took 20 years, but a Miami family finally knows why three of their four children are blind. A University of Miami study identified a gene responsible for a condition that could lead to a loss of vision.
February 2, 2011
[AUDIO] By Sammy Mack – Science is cool. And lest there be any confusion on this point, check out this fascinating study linking the sound of a man’s voice to his strength: Adaptations in humans for assessing physical strength from the voice.
February 1, 2011
[AUDIO] By Dalia Colón – About six years ago, before I moved from Ohio to Florida, I spent a few days visiting a friend in St. Petersburg. As we walked the beach in January, I thought to myself, If I lived here, I’d be so healthy. A few years later, after I’d moved to the Sunshine State, some family friends came down to see me. The husband said, “If I lived here, I’d go swimming every day.” Yeah, right. I’ve been in Florida long enough to know better. Even people who live and work in paradise need a little push to get healthy. And employers don’t mind doing the pushing.
January 28, 2011
[VIDEO] By Farah Dosani – FORT MYERS – Asthma can be a difficult condition to live with – especially when you’re a student. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the chronic disease is one of the leading causes of school absences in the country. But there’s a southwest Florida program that’s working to change that. By working with the students, their parents, and their schools, it’s helping to keep them in the classroom and out of the hospital.
January 20, 2011
[BLOG] By Euna Lhee – On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day earlier this week, I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Benjamin Carson speak at the First Baptist Church of Orlando during a prayer breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and a biscuit. In a 30-minute motivational speech, he recalled his path to becoming a physician, personal challenges growing up and love for learning. He also touched upon African-American history, religion and the brain.
January 14, 2011
[AUDIO] By Sammy Mack – The first time Romel Joseph played violin after the earthquake in Haiti, he struggled to perform the show tune “My Favorite Things.” The positioning of his hands was painful, the movements labored. But he was grateful. That’s because the legally blind, Juliard-trained musician had his left hand crushed in the rubble of the quake.
January 3, 2011
By Euna Lhee – A new clinical trial is underway in Florida for patients who suffer from advanced liver cancer and cirrhosis. University of Florida researchers are looking at whether the dosage of a chemotherapy drug could be adjusted for these patients, so they suffer fewer side effects.
December 28, 2010
[VIDEO] By Sammy Mack – Flu season has arrived early in Florida this year, and along with the usual barrage of messages about getting flu shots, Team Public Health is reminding everyone to wash their hands. After all, handwashing is great for preventing the spread of flu. It can remove up to 99% of the pathogens on your hands. That is, if you’re doing it right. And chances are, you’re probably not.
December 27, 2010
By Euna Lhee – The federal government is cracking down on health care fraud and overspending in nine areas of the country. As of Jan. 1, Medicare will only pay for merchandise ordered from a list of selected vendors. The new program will affect parts of California, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Missouri, Florida and the Carolinas.
December 20, 2010
[BLOG] By Kimberly Vlach It will be quite some time before any final ruling is made on the constitutionality of the insurance mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as arguments are expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. In the meantime, insurance industry executives will be interpreting every word in each ruling that comes down. Why? “It’s their favorite part of the bill,” says former CIGNA public relations executive Wendell Potter, author of Deadly Spin.