Spencer Dunlop

Spencer Dunlop

Public Health Community Trends

Intro to Public Health

I was talking to Richard Mcwhorter who is a doctor in Springdale, Arkansas. I asked him what specific public health trends were apparent in his field at the current time and he said that there was a larger number of kidney stones problems than ever before. He said the reason for this could be that during the winter people tend to drink more soda and less water because they are always on the go and feel that water is wasteful to buy in bottles. This is not a huge concern because the kidneys stones are not a huge health risk besides mainly discomfort.

The second trend I asked him about was chronic heart disease. He talked about how it has become recently a huge problem because people do not know if they have it and don’t get checked frequently enough.  He said the best way to prevent this from becoming an even bigger cause of death is to get yourself checked twice a year and keep yourself healthy. That means working out and not letting yourself get overweight.

The third trend is a greater number of prevention and awareness campaigns. He said that at his hospital alone they have increase events promoting awareness by up to 40%. This means that they are moving in the right direction to help people understand what the current trends are and the reason people need to be aware to save their lives and their family’s lives.

The fourth trend we talked about was improvement of the facilities and staff. He said many people do not realize that the level of healthcare you receive can depend on factors like the facility and faculty working. In his area it is a big area of improvement and focus. They have upped their hiring criteria and also have plans on improving their hospital ICU and pre-natal care sections.

The final trend is one to improve cancer research. He said this is an important because this is a big problem and needs to be cured. Yes, hospitals make a lot of money off of cancer in reality but that doesn’t mean people don’t need to cure it. They have started to fund research it on a full-time basis so that they can continue growing knowledge about this disease.