Michelle Obama promoted healthy eating in her visit to Atlanta on Wednesday. The trip marked the first anniversary of her “Let’s Move’’ campaign to fight childhood obesity. Here’s 11alive.com’s account of the first lady’s visit to Burgess-Peterson Academy in southeast Atlanta, and later to North Point Community Church in Alpharetta.
A Carrollton ob/gyn will direct Georgia’s beleaguered public health system. Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald will preside over a unit that faces major financial and administrative challenges. She will begin her duties Feb. 21. “Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald is a trusted leader on health care issues, and she has dedicated her professional life to serving her nation and…
Michelle Obama will mark the first anniversary of her “Let’s Move’’ campaign to fight childhood obesity Wednesday with a trip to Atlanta. Her first stop is expected to be the Burgess-Peterson Academy in Atlanta, where she will focus on healthy eating and gardening. Later she will speak at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta about…
High rates of obesity and infant mortality helped sink Georgia to the low end of a new state-by-state scorecard on children’s health. Georgia ranked 43rd for child health among the states and the District of Columbia in the 2011 report card developed by the Commonwealth Fund. It was released Feb. 2. The report analyzed 20 indicators…
The state’s Public Health Division has a range of problems in its financial controls, an independent audit has found. A December letter from auditors to the state Department of Community Health listed flaws in the financial oversight of bank statements, checks, cash receipts, expenditures and invoices at Public Health. That unit, with its $600 million…
Public health spending, Medicaid eligibility, and the planned closing of a Rome hospital were major topics as two health agencies gave budget presentations Thursday to state legislators. David Cook, the new commissioner of the Department of Community Health, told the joint House-Senate Appropriations panel that Medicaid needs a new eligibility system prior to the expansion…
Anita LaTourette, a dental hygienist, travels to elementary schools and works on hundreds of Georgia children every year. Through a public health program, LaTourette cleans teeth, removing bacteria, and applies sealants and fluoride treatments to students on the free-and-reduced-lunch program. “A lot of the children have not seen a dentist,’’ she says. “We’re their dental…
An early 2011 test for President Obama’s administration may come from a Georgia congressman, and it concerns legislation that focuses on the health of Americans. But it’s not health care reform. Rep. Jack Kingston’s target is a $1.4 billion overhaul of the nation’s food safety regulations, which Obama plans to sign Tuesday. Kingston, a Republican…
Georgians can now find out how their individual county stacks up against other counties in the state – and in the rest of the nation – on important public health measures. Partner Up for Public Health, an advocacy campaign, has introduced a database and interactive map that analyzes the relative health of all 159 Georgia…
Given that there are 50 states, a health ranking of 36th isn’t much to brag about. Yet Georgia’s overall ranking on health measures such as patterns of behavior, government health policies, and clinical care did jump seven spots in 2010, from 43rd the previous year. The annual rankings, released Tuesday, are compiled by the United Health Foundation,…