Check out the training and workshops by the The Homeland Defense Journal Training Workshops

For details on these and all training and workshops, visit www.HomelandDefenseJournal.net

Upcoming Emergency Management Workshops for June and July 2009

Incident Management for First Responders in Different Cultures - A two day workshop on implementing Cultural Competence in Dangerous Situations Jun 16-17, 2009 | Arlington, VA
Exercise Design and Evaluation Workshop Jun 17-18, 2009 Arlington, VA
Emergency Capability Analysis Workshop Jun 19, 2009 | Arlington, VA
Emergency Preparedness for Libraries Jun 18-19, 2009 | Arlington, VA
All-Hazards Regional Evacuation Plans - An Interactive Two-Day Workshop on Developing an All-Hazards Regional Evacuation Plan Jun 23-24, 2009 | Arlington, VA
How to Develop a Business Continuity Plan/Continuity of Operations Plan That Really Works Workshop Jul 14, 2009 | Arlington, VA
Best Practices for Disaster Communications Jul 15, 2009 | Arlington, VA
Search and Rescue Certification Standards Jul 16, 2009 | Arlington, VA

Managing Emergency Preparedness: Academic Health Centers Organize and Innovate provides academic health center leaders and policymakers at the local, state, and national levels with a short-hand guide on managing emergency response activities within academic health centers. Academic health centers are leaders in emergency preparedness and disaster response from vigilance in internal security to protection of the research enterprise to collaboration with the surrounding community. This brief guide by the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC) highlights ways in which academic health centers are developing and managing operations and systems to help ensure that institutions and communities can respond to an array of emergencies and natural disasters. http://www.aahcdc.org/policy/reports/AAHC_Emergency_Prep_08.pdf [posted on DISASTR-OUTREACH-LIB] scb

In 2008, the Information Use Management & Policy Institute at Florida State University was awarded a $218,000 grant to assist public libraries and local communities to better plan for and respond to hurricanes. From this project came a webcast with six experts sharing their first-hand experience in assisting public libraries planning for and respond to hurricanes. Their work will contribute to a study identifying public library best practices in hurricane preparedness and response. In addition, a web portal was created to organize and provide access to a broad range of information for public librarians and local communities regarding hurricanes. [da]

Inspiration in Greensburg: The Vital Role of Public Health
With the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), RWJF produced a video illustrating the breadth of the public health response in a Kansas town hit by a category 5 tornado. Almost two years after a category 5 tornado leveled 95 percent of the town of Greensburg, public health continues to play a critical role rebuilding the community and improving the lives of its residents. The complete devastation caused by the tornado required a comprehensive public health response from across the state - from emergency response to dispensing medication to coordinating temporary housing to leading a state-of-the-art energy-efficient reconstruction effort. Learn more and view the vieo at http://www.rwjf.org/newsroom/product.jsp?id=39388#content [posted on RWJF Content Alerts] scb

Building Community Resilience and a Culture of Preparedness
March 10-12, 2009 in Colorado Springs, CO
Featured speakers include Rear Admiral Craig Vanderwagen, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, HHS, and Laurence Gonzales, author of “Deep Survival”. Dr. Steven Phillips and CAPT Mary Chaffee from the National Library of Medicine’s Specialized Information Services Division will also be speaking.To register for the conference, please go to http://www.cdham.org, click on the CDHAM Event Registration link and follow this to the NORTHCOM Surgeon’s Conference registration page. The registration period has been extended to next Monday, 9 February. While there is no registration fee for the conference, CDHAM will be booking your hotel room as well, so will be asking for credit card information. If you have any questions, please feel free to call or e-mail Eric Sergienko (eric.sergienko@northcom.mil; (719) 554-0042).

Standards of Care During a Mass Casualty Event
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) will host a series of regional workshops on “Standards of Care During a Mass Casualty Event. The meetings will take place at several locations throughout the country through the spring. Individuals can register for the meetings and download draft agendas through http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3740/42532.aspx Attendance is free and open to all but registration is required. For in-depth background info, see the report, “Altered Standards of Care in Mass Casualty Events” at http://www.ahrq.gov/research/altstand/. [scb]

Planning for the health and safety of those attending mass gatherings is an enormous challenge for local officials. Mass gatherings are defined as those attracting more than 1,000 participants and include events like the Olympics, Super Bowl, religious services conducted by the Pope, state funerals, and presidential inaugurations. Public health concerns range from ensuring adequate drinking water, food safety, first aid, and toilet facilities to planning for the extremes of possible major accidents, dangerous weather and even terrorist threats.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has compiled a Web page of links to information on the public health aspects of planning for all kinds of mass gatherings, http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/massgatherings.html. These resources include a search of PubMed for medical journal article citations as well as documents from government and other sources. Topics include preparedness for large numbers of casualties and management of disease outbreaks. For more information on the Disaster Information Management Research Center at NLM, please visit http://disasterinfo.nlm.nih.gov/. [scb]

The Radiation Event Medical Management System (REMM) http://remm.nlm.gov/ is available for download to mobile devices (Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm) with selected key files from the full online version. REMM is produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Office of Planning and Emergency Operations, in cooperation with the National Library of Medicine, Division of Specialized Information Services, with subject matter experts from the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many US and international consultants. For more see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/nd08/nd08_sis_reprint_remm.html [NLM New files for the week of Dec 29, 2008]

WISER 4.2 is now available! You may download it from the WISER web site http://wiser.nlm.nih.gov/ , or access the on-line version, WebWISER. http://webwiser.nlm.nih.gov/ WISER is a system designed to assist first responders in hazardous material incidents. WISER provides a wide range of information on hazardous substances, including substance identification support, physical characteristics, human health information, and containment and suppression advice. [NLM-WISER-L]

DisasterAssistance.gov
http://www.disasterassistance.gov/
DisasterAssistance.gov is an easy to use website that consolidates disaster information in one place. Currently, 17 U.S. Government agencies, which sponsor more than 40 forms of disaster assistance, contribute to the website. You can apply for many forms of assistance with a single, online application. Your application information is shared only with those agencies that you identify and is protected by the highest levels of security. Ultimately, DisasterAssistance.gov will speed the application process and allow you to check the progress of your application online. [[DISASTR-OUTREACH-LIB ]

Ready or Not 2008
http://healthyamericans.org/assets/files/bioterror-report-2008.pdf
Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) released the sixth annual Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism report, which finds that progress made to better protect the country from disease outbreaks, natural disasters, and bioterrorism is now at risk, due to budget cuts and the economic crisis. In addition, the report concludes that major gaps remain in many critical areas of preparedness, including surge capacity, rapid disease detection, and food safety. [MRC National Listserv][scb]

Taken from the article After the Storm-Disaster Evacuees and Rural Communities http://www.naccho.org/topics/emergency/AHPIP/upload/Prep-Brief-Feature-November-2008.pdf

The online map based planning tool developed by WNYPHA and its partners, the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago and the Pennsylvania State University Center for Environmental Informatics (PSUCEI), is the central element of the APC’s set of tools. This online tool http://www.cei.psu.edu/evac [note: registration is required] is predicated on the assumption that when a disaster strikes an urban area, a significant number of residents will selfevacuate to surrounding rural communities.

Intended to give local officials a framework around which to focus their planning efforts, the online tool
enables users to select a city of interest and model how surrounding counties (within a 150 mile radius) might be impacted by the spontaneous evacuation of urban residents following one of three scenarios: a dirty bomb explosion, chemical incident, or influenza pandemic. Users may explore each county’s resources, such as number of hospital beds or hotel rooms, and display maps delineating the numbers of evacuees received by each of the surrounding counties and their resulting population changes. Detailed scenario descriptions give users a means by which to visualize each disaster precipitating the evacuation. The information contained in this tool gives planners the ability to anticipate how many evacuees their community might receive, how this influx compares to the county’s existing population, and what resources the region might leverage to respond to evacuee and resident needs. [scb]

“Health and Wellness Guide for the Volunteer Fire and Emergency Services”
The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), in partnership with the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA). Oct 2008.
http://www.nvfc.org/files/documents/HealthWellness_guide.pdf
This Guide provides the rationale and suggestions for successfully implementing a health and wellness program in the volunteer fire and emergency services. It also addresses many common roadblocks. The chapters are divided to help volunteer departments develop a program from the ground up. [posted on the Medical Reserve Corps listserv] scb

AHRQ releases hospital surge capacity tool
September 15, 2008
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has released a Web-based tool to help hospitals and emergency planners estimate the resources needed to treat an influx of patients in a disaster. The Hospital Surge Model can estimate the number and flow of casualties needing medical attention for scenarios consistent with the Homeland Security Counsel’s National Planning Scenarios. http://hospitalsurgemodel.ahrq.gov/ [posted on the Medical Reserve Corps listserv http://www.medicalreservecorps.gov/ListservRulesRegulations ] scb