AHRQ awards five new surge capacity grants to address bioterrorism preparedness

Five new grants totaling nearly $5 million have been funded under the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's grant program, "Building the Evidence to Promote Bioterrorism and Other Public Health Emergency Preparedness in Health Care Systems." Each of the five grants addresses a vital area of bioterrorism preparedness concern known as surge capacity, which is a health care system's ability to rapidly expand beyond normal services to meet the increased demand for qualified personnel, medical care, and public health in the event of a large-scale public health emergency or disaster.

The new awards were made to:

• Weill Medical College, Cornell University, "Modeling the U.S. Health System's Epidemic Response Capacity," $840,262.
• Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, "Discharge Criteria for Creation of Hospital Surge Capacity," $911,199.
• University of Florida, Gainesville, "Bioterrorism Preparedness in Rural and Urban Communities," $889,072.
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, "Preparing Volunteer Nurses for Public Health Emergencies," $1,090,145.
• Johns Hopkins University, "Evaluation of Bioterrorism Training for Clinicians," $991,843.

To learn more about these and other projects in the Agency's bioterrorism research preparedness and response portfolio, visit www.ahrq.gov/research/bioterport.htm.

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