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You Are Here: AHRQ Home > Special Interest > State & Local Policymakers > Bioterrorism and Health System Preparedness

Bioterrorism and Health System Preparedness

Emerging Tools, Methods, and Strategies

Web Conference

This Web-assisted audio teleconference series consisted of three sessions broadcast on April 29, 30, and May 1, 2002, via the World Wide Web and telephone. The program was designed to help State and local policymakers make policy decisions and allocate resources related to bioterrorism and the health system. The User Liaison Program (ULP) of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) developed and sponsored the program.

Select to access the slides for presentations in the Conference Sessions.

A complete set of audio tapes of the teleconference is also available for $10.00 through the AHRQ Publications Clearinghouse at 1-800-358-9295. Ask for AHRQ 02-AV08A, "Bioterrorism and Health System Preparedness: Emerging Tools, Methods and Strategies"

Program Overview

Bioterrorism represents a significant public health threat to the United States. Our Nation's vulnerability to the deliberate use of biological and chemical agents has been highlighted by recent high-profile terrorist attacks and the recognition that there may be substantial biological weapons development programs and arsenals in foreign countries.

Addressing this threat requires the rapid development of Federal, State, and local capacity to respond to potential bioterrorism events. To be as effective as possible, these efforts must be directed toward improving the ability of both our public health system and our health care delivery system—including the individual health care systems, facilities and clinicians that comprise the latter—to detect and respond to such events. They also must focus on ensuring that all of these components communicate and coordinate with one another and with other systems, such as emergency preparedness and law enforcement, as effectively and efficiently as possible.

The Federal Government is playing an important role in supporting and coordinating the Nation's efforts to prepare itself for the possibility of a bioterrorist attack. An example of its many activities in this area is the recent release of the first installment of $1.1 billion dollars targeted to enhancing the preparedness of hospitals and State and local health agencies. The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Public Health Preparedness and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) play critically important roles in these efforts.

In addition, the Federal Government has funded research to develop methodologies and tools that can assist public health officials, health care systems and facilities administrators, and front-line clinicians in assessing and improving their readiness to respond to bioterrorism. For example, the Federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) plays an important role in these efforts. It has supported a series of important bioterrorism-related research activities, including:

  • Efforts aimed at identifying the most effective methods for training clinicians about bioterrorism.
  • Creating models to assess the capacity of delivery systems to respond to bioterrorist events.
  • Developing tools to assess the preparedness of individual hospitals and health systems.
  • Examining approaches to use information technology to more effectively link primary care providers to emergency preparedness and public health personnel.

State and local health policymakers and program administrators play an essential role in their own jurisdictions and regions in developing capacity and coordinating efforts across the public health, health care, law enforcement, and related systems. It is extremely important, therefore, that they have information about:

  • The nature of Federal efforts to ensure the rapid development of Federal, State, and local capacity to address potential bioterrorism events.
  • The importance of effective and timely coordination and communication across public health, health care systems and facilities, front-line clinicians, and other systems responding to bioterrorism and strategies to achieve this.
  • The availability of methods and tools that have been developed through Federally-supported health services research efforts that can be of assistance to these officials in developing systems capacity and enhancing readiness.

Conference Sessions

PowerPoint® files can be viewed with Microsoft® PowerPoint® or with a free PowerPoint® Viewer.

Session 1: Enhancing Public Health, Health Care System, and Clinician Preparedness: Strategies to Promote Coordination and Communication

Presentations

Session 2: Promoting Clinician Readiness

Presentations

Session 3: Assessing Hospital and Health System Preparedness and Response

Presentations

Current as of May 2002

Internet Citation:

Bioterrorism and Health System Preparedness: Emerging Tools, Methods, and Strategies. Web Conference, broadcast on April 29, 30, and May 1, 2002. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/ulp/bioteleconf/

 
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