This weekend, hundreds of families came to the Central Florida fairgrounds for the annual Hispanic Health Fair. Well, actually they came to have fun. While they were there, they got preventive health care.

The genius of Josephine Mercado and her Hispanic Health Initiative is that they know they can attract a lot more people if they throw a party and make it convenient to get tested.

Music, raffles, and hot dogs draw the crowds, as the Orlando Sentinel reports. While they’re there, they get tests on blood pressure, low cholesterol, sexually transmitted diseases and more.

It reminds me of a visit to Tijuana I made years ago on a fellowship from the Kaiser Family Foundation. We visited the health department, but that’s not where the action was.

They took us to one of the poorest neighborhoods in the area, where a health fair was under way. They’d attracted hundreds of families for vaccinations and health screenings by offering free food, haircuts and flea-dips for dogs. Men, who are notorious for avoiding check-ups, showed up in droves for the haircuts and got their blood pressure checked. Kids brought their dogs and got immunization.

What a great idea!

Our culture creates monuments to medicine, complete with PET scanners and CyberKnives, and does a great job of treating patients -- if they have money or insurance -- once they get sick.

Many less-affluent cultures have figured out ways to create low-cost, convenient opportunities and incentives to prevent disease. They did it because they had to.

Maybe we could learn from this? 

--Carol Gentry, Editor, can be reached at 727-410-3266 or by e-mail.  < Less

At Health News Florida, aside from our own coverage of health issues, each day we link to at least half a dozen articles that we think have merit. They have to have something to do with health, but we define that broadly -- some say too broadly.

We've received a couple of complaints -- one from a hospital administrator, one from an insurance executive -- about the stories we've linked to that don't involve what they think of as health care. I think they mean the exchange of medical goods or services for money or insurance claims.
 
They probably didn't like our links to stories about child abuse, pollution, and the serial cat killer. And they may not like the links to this week's St. Petersburg Times' amazing series on the Church of Scientology. Based on interviews with four former high-ranking members, the series sheds light on an organization that goes to great lengths to control the behavior of its members and attack its opponents. To us, the link to health is strong and obvious: One of the fundamental tenets of Scientology is opposition to conventional mental-health treatment, especially psychiatry and psychiatric drugs. 

Yes, we cover science, medicine and the health-care industry.  But our mission is to inform all Floridians about state public policy on health issues and on anything that  could affect their own health or the cost of preserving it.

"Who's your audience?" someone recently asked, implying that the publication has to have a niche. "Everyone in Florida," we say. We mean it.

--Contact Carol Gentry at 727-410-3266 or at this e-mail.

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One of the saddest things about newspapers' cost-slashing campaigns is they're losing their most experienced reporters. Such is the case with Maya Bell, who used to cover Miami-Dade for the Orlando Sentinel until last year.

Now a free-lancer, Maya did most of the record-checks and writing for today's story on a dermatologist who's coming back to practice after six arrests and two stints in prison. We hope her byline will appear here frequently from now on.

--Carol Gentry, Editor, can be reached at 727-410-3266 or via e-mail.

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Granted, it sounds weird. But the idea of a warranty for health care actually may make sense, as described by authors of a Health Affairs article released today on the "Prometheus Payment Model." 

The idea is that doctors and hospitals would significantly reduce complication rates -- however much trouble that might be -- if that was the only way they could be profitable. Let the debate begin!  < Less

The Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review's Bob Laszewski asks: "Why do we need to raise taxes to pay for a health care bill in a system that has $10 trillion in waste?"   

Florida's Brian Klepper answers with this observation: Health care interests have already spent $128 million on Congressional lobbying contributions this year, more than from any other sector. 

"Finding Money for Health Reform -- Rooting out Waste, Fraud and Abuse" by journalist John Iglehart provides evidence that the U.S. can cover everyone within existing spending. But he notes there is little appetite in Congress, except for a few members, for a crackdown. 

It will be interesting to see whether the pleas of average Americans can drown out the influence of lobbyists.

--Carol Gentry can be reached at 727-410-3266 or at this e-mail.   < Less

Want to sound smart as the debate on  health reform heats up? Here's a great resource: "A Consumer's Guide to Health Reform." < Less