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The article describes the surveillance activities conducted by the Mississippi Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in coastal counties of Mississippi. The organizations collected data from emergency departments and federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team operation sites to monitor potential outbreaks of infectious disease or other injuries. The article presents the methods of data collections as well as the limitations of the findings.

Describes the audio and visual introduction to amphibians at The Pad at the San Antonio Zoological Gardens and Aquarium in San Antonio, Texas. Purpose of the Pad; Design; Details on its exhibits; Reasons for the difficulty in displaying caecilians; Activities. INSET: Details, Details.

Objective: To assess whether the number of practice sites per gynecologic oncologist (GO) and geographic access to GOs has changed over time., Methods: This is a retrospective repeated cross-sectional study using the 2015-2019 Physician Compare National File. All GOs in the 50 United States and Washington, DC, who had completed at least one year of practice were included in the study. All practice sites with complete addresses were included. Linear regression analyses estimated trends in GOs' number of practice sites and geographic dispersion of practice sites. Secondary analyses assessed temporal trends in the number of geographic areas served by at least one GO., Results: Although there was no significant change in the number of GOs from 2015 to 2019 (n = 1328), there was a significant increase in the number of practice sites (881 to 1416, p = 0.03), zip codes (642 to 984, p = 0.03), HSAs (404 to 536, p = 0.04), and HRRs (218 to 230, p = 0.03) containing a GO practice. The mean number of practice sites (1.64 versus 2.13, p < 0.001) and dispersion of practice sites (0.03 versus 0.43 miles, p = 0.049) per GO increased significantly., Conclusions: Between 2015 and 2019, an increasing number of GOs have multi-site practices, and more geographic regions contain a GO practice. Improvements in geographic access to GOs may represent improved access to care for many women in the US, but its effect on patients, physicians, and geographic disparities is unknown., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

On 11 September 2001, terrorists hijacked two passenger planes and crashed them into the two towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City. These synchronized attacks were the largest act of terrorism ever committed on US soil. The impacts, fires, and subsequent collapse of the towers killed and injured thousands of people. Within minutes after the first plane crashed into the WTC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, initiated one of the largest public health responses in its history. Staff of the CDC provided technical assistance on several key public health issues. During the acute phase of the event, CDC personnel assisted with: (1) assessing hospital capacity; (2) establishing injury and disease surveillance activities; (3) deploying emergency coordinators/liaisons to facilitate inter-agency coordination with the affected jurisdictions; and (4) arranging rapid delivery of emergency medical supplies, therapeutics, and personal protective equipment. This incident highlighted the need for adequate planning for all potential hazards and the importance of interagency and interdepartmental coordination in preparing for and responding to public health emergencies.

Reimbursement for gynecologic oncologists can be categorized into three areas: payments for evaluation and management of clinical diagnosis, payments for chemotherapy, and reimbursement for surgical procedures. Revenue from surgical care is generally considered the major source of income for gynecologic oncologists. The transition to Medicare's resource-based relative value scale-based physician payment system began on January 1, 1992, culminating nearly a decade of effort by the medical profession and the government to change the way Medicare pays for physician services. The resource-based relative value scale payment schedule was fully phased in on January 1, 1996, and has been adopted by other third party payers. As a result of this reform, relative value units were created for current procedural technology codes and represent a composite of work, practice, and malpractice expenditures. When multiplied by a dollar conversion factor, relative value units can be used to calculate the reimbursement amount for all procedures covered by Medicare and other private insurers. Many of the discrepancies in reimbursement for similar procedures performed by gynecologists and urologists were partially corrected in 1997; however, sex-specific bias still exists in payment for surgical procedures performed on men and women.

Five policy advocates and practitioners provide recommendations to researchers to make research data more usable, accessible, and applicable for the field of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention among injecting and other drug users. Translating research into usable information will facilitate its use within political and policy discussions. When researcher and practitioners truly work together in a common enterprise, the result will be powerful HIV prevention programs that will save lives.