EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES

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Public Health - Seattle & King County related links: King County Emergency Medical Services (KCEMS) KCEMS operates in a coordinated partnership with eight dispatch centers, six paramedic providers, and thirty-five fire departments. This partnership also requires collaboration with local hospital emergency departments, private ambulance companies, and other organizations. King County Medic One A critical link in our regional Emergency Medical Service system, providing high quality, advanced patient care, King County Medic One paramedics are trained by the world renowned University of Washington / Harborview Medical Center / Seattle Fire Department paramedic training program.

• DOH Office of Emergency Medical Services and Trauma System (OEMSTS)
  Information on licensing, training, and EMS oriented topics such as trauma services, public access defibrillation, and OEMSTS policies.
  
  
• National Emergency Medical Services for Children, Data Analysis Resource Center
  Help EMSC grantees and state EMS offices develop their own capabilities to collect, analyze, and utilize EMS and other healthcare data to improve the quality of care in state EMS and trauma systems.
  
  
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Emergency Medical Services Division
  Provides links to standards, guidelines and curricula for EMS providers.

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

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Public Health - Seattle & King County related links: Bioterrorism Preparedness Public Health - Seattle & King County has worked with the local medical community to increase the ability to detect and respond to a bioterrorist attack. Seattle-King County Advanced Practice Center A resource for local public health agencies throughout the nation as it develops plans and builds local and regional capacity for responding to an act of bioterrorism or other public health emergency. Pandemic Flu Preparedness Information includes the nationally recognized Pandemic Flu Response Plan, fact sheet, resources for specific groups, multimedia resources and the King County Health Care Coalition.

• Bioterrorism Planning & Response
  The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s gateway to information on bioterrorism planning and response. The website includes links to tools, resources, and evidence reports.
  
  
• CDC Emergency and Terrorism Preparedness for Environmental Health Practitioners
  Information on general preparedness, food protection, water security, hazardous materials, building environment, radiation, vector control, and biologic and infectious waste.
  
  
• CDC Emergency Preparedness & Response
  Information on bioterrorism agents, chemical emergencies, radiation emergencies, mass casualties, natural disasters and severe weather, and recent outbreaks and incidents.
  
  
• Disaster Help
  The federal government’s Internet-based portal is designed to serve the public’s requirement for assistance, and the government’s requirement to provide disaster information and services.
  
  
• EPA Emergencies
  Index of emergencies includes information on accidents, counterterrorism, natural disasters, oil spills, and poisoning.
  
  
• FDA: Counterterrorism
  Resources on counterterrorism include information on food security, anthrax, small pox, and other biological agents.
  
  
• Get Ready
  Resources and tools for individuals, families, and communities in the U.S. to be more prepared for a potential influenza pandemic, outbreak of an emerging infectious disease or other hazard or disaster.
  
  
• National Bioterrorism Syndromic Surveillance Demonstration Project
  A restricted access website, this project has collected daily information from ambulatory visits and calls to nurse help lines for over 20 million people, and analyzed the data to identify unusual clusters of illness that might represent bioterrorism events or other outbreaks of public health importance.
  
  
• National Center for Disaster Preparedness Training Center
  Online courses in disaster preparedness from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
  
  
• Preparedness Peer Assistance Network
  Referral service that pairs local health departments' emergency preparedness practitioners to subject matter experts in other LHDs for guidance and technical assistance on several topics related to preparedness.
  
  
• Public Health Information Network
  Advancing fully capable and interoperable information systems in the many organizations that participate in public health.
  
  
• Public Health Infrastructure: Bioterrorism and Preparedness
  Information on emergency preparedness and response from the Public Health Infrastructure Resource Center.
  
  
• Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Disease, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, 2007
  State-by-state health preparedness scores based on 10 key indicators that assess health emergency preparedness capabilities.
  
  
• Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness
  The New York Academy of Medicine’s searchable database of essential information resources in public health and disaster preparedness.
  
  
• Special Populations: Emergency and Disaster Preparedness
  Links to selected websites featuring emergency preparedness for special populations including people with disabilities, people with visual or hearing impairments, senior citizens, children, and women.
  

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

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Public Health - Seattle & King County related links: Environmental Health Services Public Health - Seattle & King County's Environmental Health Services covers a wide range of topics from food protection, drinking water, plumbing, onsite-sewage systems, arsenic and lead testing, West Nile virus monitoring, solid waste, and more.

Built Environment links:

• CDC Building Healthy Places
  CDC’s gateway to resources on designing and building healthy environments links to information on social capital, accessibility, and other indoor and outdoor environmental health topics.
  
  
• CDC Healthy Homes Initiative
  The Healthy Homes Initiative website provides a variety of downloadable publications on the indoor living environment including the Healthy Housing Reference Manual.
  
  
• Collaborative on Health and the Environment
  The Collaborative on Health and the Environment is an alliance of individuals and organizations working together to advance knowledge and effective action addressing growing concerns about the links between human health and environmental factors.
  
  
• Environmental Health Perspectives: Built Environment
  A comprehensive list of full text articles published by Environmental Health Perspectives on the Built Environment.

Other links:

• CDC National Center for Environmental Health
  Covers a wide range of topics including air pollution, asthma, lead poisoning, cruise ship vessel sanitation, and border environmental health issues.
  
  
• Environmental Health at CDC
  Topics range from natural disasters to manmade environmental hazards and bioterrorism agents.
  
  
• National Environmental Education and Training Foundation
  Projects include the National Strategies for Health Care Providers: Pesticides Initiative; the Pediatric Asthma Initiative; and the Pediatric Environmental History Initiative.
  
  
• National Pest Management Association
  PestWorld.org, the official website of the National Pest Management Association, provides information for consumers and professionals on pest identification, management and prevention.
  
  
• National Pesticide Information Center
  A source of fact sheets, technical, and regulatory information on pesticide use.
  
  
• Nurses’ Health: A Survey on Health & Chemical Exposures
  A nationwide survey suggesting associations between the health of nurses and their children from nurses' long-term exposures to the many hazardous chemicals, drugs, and other agents to which they are exposed over the course of a workday.
  
  
• Scorecard: The Pollution Information Site
  Allows visitors to explore the pollution problems in their own communities, learn about the increased environmental burden placed on certain racial/ethnic and income groups, and even contact government or corporate officials about pollution problems.
  
  
• Washington State University Integrated Pest Management and Pesticide Safety Education Program
  The goal of this WSU extension website is to provide “education with an emphasis on personal safety, environmental protection, and effective integrated pest management.” Resources address both professional training and consumer oriented information needs.

ENVIRONMENTAL and HUMAN HAZARDS

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EPIDEMIOLOGY

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Public Health - Seattle & King County related links: Communicable Diseases, Epidemiology and Immunizations Covers a wide range of topics including disease fact sheets in multiple languages, newsletters, how to submit reportable diseases, information on how to get immunized, Travel Clinics, and more. Data, Publications and Reports Authored by Public Health - Seattle & King County staff, view a wide range of research publications including the Health of King County, access to care, communicable diseases, and more.

• CDC Epidemiologic Case Studies
  These epidemiologic case studies, based on real-life outbreaks and public health problems, are interactive exercises developed to teach epidemiologic principles and practices; they can be used for self-study or in a classroom setting.
  
  
• Epidemiology for Journalists
  Dedicated to improving the quality of information reaching the public through the news.” Their Epidemiology for Journalists webpage is a useful resource for the epidemiologically uninitiated.
  
  
• EpiQMS
  An online application allowing citizens, public health and medical practitioners and public health agency investigators access to a state's or region's health data (death, birth, cancer registry, hospital discharge, STD, injury, emergency response, environmental justice, etc.) for the purpose of health assessment or surveillance support.
  
  
• EpiSurveyor
  EpiSurveyor is a free, open source tool that allows anyone to create a handheld data entry form, collect data on a mobile device, and then transfer the data back to a desktop or laptop for analysis.
  
  
• Repository of Instructional Materials for Epidemiology
  The Northwest Center for Public Health Practice’s indexed, searchable repository of instructional materials for epidemiology trainers.
  
  
• Weekly Epidemiological Record, World Health Organization
  An instrument for the rapid and accurate dissemination of epidemiological information on cases and outbreaks of diseases under the International Health Regulations and on other communicable diseases of public health importance, including the newly emerging or re-emerging infections.