Above 6th Grade

Community health workers (CHWs) have shown, time and again, that they can improve health outcomes while reducing healthcare costs. Reductions in chronic illness, improved medication adherence, more patient involvement, and better community health have been accompanied by a return on investment of more than $2 for every dollar invested.

One approach states have explored to counteract these barriers is to develop some sort of CHW credentialing system. The goals of credentialing, as described by Carl Rush in 2012, are to achieve greater respect for CHWs among other healthcare professions, improved financial compensation and working conditions, increased job stability, and opportunities for more sustainable funding. The connection between insurance reimbursement and credentialing or standardized training is particularly significant, as both public and private insurance plans are likely to require some form of credentialing in order to pay for CHW services. At the same time, many CHWs are concerned that credentialing will create barriers to entry for the individuals best suited to the job (i.e., members of low-income communities who may not speak English as a first language), and/or take CHWs away from their community connections by focusing on credentialed ―skills‖ over community relationships.

This report by Harvard Law School's Center for Health Law & Policy Innovation is designed to review some of the major policies in different states and highlight some of the issues that arise in these programs. There is no single right approach. With sufficient stakeholder engagement, each state can develop policies tailored for its community.

In recent years, defilement of the air has significantly impacted the health and hygiene of the population at large. In order to address this issue properly, information is needed on the particulates responsible for affecting the quality of air both outdoor as well as indoors. Pollutants vary greatly in their composition, as well as from place to place. Data is required to interpret a correlation between particulates with that of health and hygiene. This information may signify an overall idea about the air that composes an environment and its quality.

Therefore it is essential to have data available to properly manage the local air quality. It is in this context that EDLab has decided to provide Pollen grains and Mold count in the ambient air on a daily basis, available for the general public and professionals interested in this endeavor.

Pure Air Control Services through its AIHA accredited laboratory will be publish the Allergen & Asthma Alert www.pureaircontrols.com on a daily basis Monday through Friday.  A team of aerobiologists, under the supervision of Dr. Rajiv Sahay, FIAS, CIAQP (Laboratory Director of EDLab at Pure Air Control Services), will collect and analyze samples with cutting age technology from an air sampling station located at Clearwater, Florida (Tampa Bay Area 27.97° N and 82.76°W)

Each day the Pollengrains and Mold counts will be compared to the normal indoor environmental quality (IEQ) guideline. The groupings of the trap Pollen grains and Mold/Fungi are rated on a scale ranging from high, medium or low. High counts of these outdoor air quality pollutants correlate to an elevated rating, while low counts suggest reduced exposure to such allergens.

These same counts can be measured indoors. Subsequently, viewers, doctors, patients and allergy sufferers can determine the level of air quality and the corresponding effects upon their individual allergy symptoms.

“The EDLab staff is pleased to make this valuable and important aero-allergen information available to the public in the Tampa Bay area. It is important to raise our awareness to outdoor and indoor air quality issues, which affect our health and well-being, and the AAA is contributing to that awareness,” states Dr. Sahay.

The EPA and U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) released two reports on Climate Change Indicators for 2014. Given that approximately 26 million Americans have asthma, it is important to understand and reduce the negative health impacts caused by climate change. For more information please view the website and download the attached guide.