Published: February 2009
Written by: Leslie Fink, Preparedness Center Coordinator, Center for Public Health Preparedness;
More than 1500 preparedness professionals from around the country – including from Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, Erie and Allegheny County Health Departments and the Pennsylvania Department of Health – gathered in San Diego last week for the 2009 Public Health Preparedness Summit (February 18 – 20, 2009). This was the Summit’s 4th year and the first time it took place on the West Coast. The Summit is the preeminent venue for dedicated preparedness professionals to gather, learn from each other, and improve their ability to plan, prepare for, respond to, and recover from public health emergencies and disasters. Next year’s Conference will be in Atlanta, GA. For details please visit the Public Health Preparedness Summit.
Faculty, staff, and students from the University of Pittsburgh Center for Public Health Preparedness attended and provided a diverse array of presentations. In addition, the new area of Preparedness and Emergency Response Research was highlighted, and Pitt’s brand-new “PHASYS” program (Public Health Adaptive Systems Studies) was highlighted at the opening plenary session.
Presentations
Margaret Potter, JD, MS, Associate Dean and
Director, Center for Public Health Practice
Gleason/UPCPHP
Sustainable Public Health Preparedness and Response Systems: The Role of Research, Margaret Potter, JD, MS
Margaret Potter, JD, MS, Associate Dean and Director, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health Center for Public Health Practice, along with Captain Mildred Williams-Johnson of the U.S. Public Health Service, Ruth L. Berkelman of Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, and Jennifer Horney of the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, presented an overview of the newly formed Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Centers (PERRC) which resulted from the “Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act” (PAHPA). Preparedness professionals from around the country were on hand to hear about the planned studies for creating and maintaining sustainable public health preparedness and response systems.
Dean Potter’s presentation focused on Public Health Adaptive System Studies (PHASYS), the University of Pittsburgh’s PERRC. PHASYS will generate criteria and metrics for measuring the effectiveness and efficiency of preparedness and emergency response systems. These metrics will encompass all aspects of response, including clinical, laboratory, legal, epidemiologic, communications, and management, and will be used to build models of response which will be refined using real world field observations to create practical applications for preparedness practitioners.
All-Hazards Preparedness in a Network of
Medical Clinics Serving the Urban Poor
Gleason/UPCPHP
All-Hazards Preparedness in a Network of Medical Clinics Serving the Urban Poor,
Sam Stebbins, MD, MPH and Sherrianne Gleason, PhD
The Center has recently developed on-line training and a creative workshop/exercise for medical clinical preparedness and response. This project was in response to a request from a network of 13 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and four associated shelters in the Pittsburgh, PA area. Details were shared with a diverse audience of public health and preparedness personnel from both the state and local level. The session included a discussion on the Pittsburgh area FQHC’s regional all-hazards preparedness and response plan, a detailed online module for orientation and training of clinic employees, a Situation Manual for a tabletop exercise based on a shelter-in-place scenario, and plans for the after-action report. The presentation was well received and the diverse experiences of the audience led to dynamic and interactive discussions about the challenges of preparedness planning for FQHCs in particular and medical clinics in general. Resources are available by contacting the Center at 412-383–2400.
What All Rural Responders Must Know About PH Emergencies,
J. David Piposzar, MPH and Sherie Wallace
The ratio of public health workers to the general population in rural areas is typically low and training is therefore needed for nontraditional “disaster” responders so that they will be able to fulfill public health emergency functions in the event of a disaster. One hundred twenty-five public health professionals attended this session to learn about strategies to train rural professionals and volunteers and methods of integrating them into an existing emergency management framework. As a result of the training there were several inquiries regarding national collaboration, as well as requests for more information, including requests for a training model for those states with large rural populations. For details please visit the Center for Rural Health Practice.
The Role of Non-pharmaceutical Interventions and School Closure in Pandemic Influenza,
Sam Stebbins, MD, MPH and Charles J. Vukotich, Jr., MS
Pandemic influenza threatens to cause substantial disability, death, and societal disruption, and to overwhelm health care systems. Effective vaccines and anti-viral medications may not be available during the initial months of a pandemic and therefore non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as infection control measures and behavioral changes, may be the primary means to decrease the spread of pandemic influenza. CDC’s Community Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Mitigation (2007) lists school closure as one of the most important strategies during a pandemic. This workshop included an exchange of ideas around school closure and alternatives, including concrete steps that can be taken toward policy changes to prepare schools for a pandemic. As part of the session, seventy-two people participated in The School Closure Game, an unrehearsed look at the impact of school closure on real people who, as preparedness professionals, would be part of the response to the pandemic. This real world simulation suggested that a minimum of 12-16% of people would have to miss work to care for children, and that this problem would quickly worsen the longer schools are closed. For details please visit the Pittsburgh Influenza Prevention Project.
Tina Assi stands next to her Student Public
Health Epidemic Response Effort
poster.
Stebbins/UPCPHP
Student Public Health Epidemic Response Effort (SPHERE),
Tina Assi, MPH
SPHERE is a new student organization at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health that fosters the development of public health skills by training students in local outbreak investigations, emergency response, and community health events. Numerous public health students and practitioners stopped by this poster presentation to inquire into developing similar programs at their institutions, the various training requirements, and the sustainability of a program like SPHERE. The interest was encouraging and prompted discussion on forming a collaboration of student response teams from around the country.
In addition to five presentations, the Center was able to impact even more preparedness professionals as they stopped by our conference exhibit table to talk with our faculty and staff and sign up for the Preparedness e-newsletter. The Center’s involvement with the 2009 Public Health Preparedness Summit was a wonderful success and we look forward to being in Atlanta next year!
