Has your child’s pediatrician ever looked at your child’s teeth or gums? If you have ever been pregnant, did your OB/GYN talk to you about your oral health? If you are a physician, do you shy away from talking about oral health with your patients, because it is not your role? School nurses, do you include oral health in your continuum of care in your school? As a part of Kentucky’s 2014 Oral Health Literacy [...]

Open enrollment for kynect, Kentucky’s Health Benefit Exchange, ends this month, which means many Kentuckians still need to enroll in health insurance before time runs out. And kynectors, those certified by the state to help folks navigate the enrollment process, are heading into overdrive with less than 30 days left to enroll. Last week, the Lexington Herald-Leader examined enrollment by county.  The paper’s analysis indicated that throughout the state, the percentage of people who were [...]

This post originally appeared as an op-ed in the Herald Leader. You can view it online, here. I am a Teddy Roosevelt fan because we share common passions. As a gridiron fanatic, I am awe-inspired by how he saved football. Faced with calls for the abolition of the game due to a stunning number of deaths and serious injuries, Roosevelt used his diplomacy and mandated from the Oval Office elements of the game that we [...]

February is National School-Based Health Care Awareness Month. The School-Based Health Alliance is inviting States across the country to share success stories on how School Based Health Centers (SBHCs) have proven to be beneficial for providing children comprehensive health care services.  In honor of the month, I want to highlight the history of school-based health and how it can improve the health of Kentucky’s children. The idea of school-based health is not new. In fact, [...]