⚕️This week, our hosts Heather and Matthew welcome Dr. Edward Simmer, the Interim Director of the S.C. Department of Public Health.
🩺After leading DHEC through the latter half of the COVID pandemic and its transition into two separate agencies, Dr. Simmer joins us to discuss South Carolina’s notably improved rankings in public health, including progress in chronic disease and life expectancy in the state. We also explore how the agency is tackling childhood obesity, improving maternal and infant health, and fulfilling its regulatory role in inspecting health care providers.
🔊 Tune in to hear about Dr. Simmer’s vision for DPH and its positive impact on the lives of South Carolinians on episode 229 at www.thepulsehealthcast.com!
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Hey everyone, welcome to Taking the Pulse, a healthcare and life sciences video podcast. I am Heather Hoops Matthews here in the studio today with Maynard Nexon healthcare attorney Matthew Roberts. Matthew, good to be with you. Good to see you. And we are delighted to have an in studio guest today. Joining us is Doctor Edward Simmer, interim agency director for the South Carolina Department of Public Health. Doctor Simmer took over as director of the agency formerly known as D Heck in February of 2021, and you've LED that agency. Through the latter half of the COVID-19 pandemic and through its split by the state legislature into two separate agencies, the Department of Public Health and the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services. Prior to joining state government, you retired as a Captain following a 30 year career as a United States Naval officer. Thank you for your service. Thank you and thank you for joining us today. We're excited to have you with us in person and to hear more about the Department of Public Health. Well, thank you for having me. Well, I'll start us off. Thanks again for joining us. One of the things I've heard you mentioned recently are the improvement in the rankings for the state for public health, which is the first time in a while that they've improved the way that they have. Can you talk a little bit about that? I'd be happy to. So it's something called America's Health Rankings. It's been done since 1990, and they look at a whole variety of different health outcomes for each state across the nation. And unfortunately, since 1990, until last year, South Carolina was always in the bottom 10. So 4245, not where we want to be, obviously, but we were one of the least healthy states in the nation. The way they measure that. Last year we were 39th. This year we are now 37th. Now clearly 37th is not where we want to be. Right. We want to be the healthiest state in the nation. That is our goal, But we are making progress. We're moving in the right direction. I think, you know, that's thanks to the work that we're doing with a lot of different groups. It's certainly A-Team effort to move us and continue moving us in that direction going forward, You know, but I think we've, we've seen improvements in a number of the health metrics that they measure everything from, you know, some of the chronic disease elements to life expectancy in South Carolina.
