Public Health Systems and Preparedness Publications
Overarching Preparedness
Achieving Public Health Legal Preparedness: How Dissonant Views on Public Health Law Threaten Emergency Preparedness and Response — 2011
Organizational culture differences between public health and emergency management entities may hinder inter-agency collaboration.
Disaster Recovery Also Involves Human Recovery — 2010
This commentary argues that unless the U.S. examines and plans for the psychological consequences of disasters such as Katrina and the recent oil spill, communities will be struggling to address acute and chronic health issues while trying to rebuild.
Federal Initiative Increases Community Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies — 2010
This article describes an evaluation of the Cities Readiness Initiative, a federal program to improve communities' ability to dispense medications rapidly during emergencies.
Influenza Vaccine: Safe, Effective, and Mistrusted — 2010
The public's acceptance of vaccination may be more difficult to achieve than addressing the technical and scientific challenges involved in quickly producing large quantities of a safe and effective vaccine.
Navigating the Road to Recovery: Assessment of the Coordination, Communication, and Financing of the Disaster Case Management Pilot in Louisiana — 2010
Researchers assessing a disaster case management pilot recommend that future efforts establish better ways to find affected residents, consider needs/vulnerabilities in planning, and ensure continuity of services before, during, and after disaster.
Perceived Seriousness of Seasonal and A(H1N1) Influenzas, Attitudes Toward Vaccination, and Vaccine Uptake Among U.S. Adults: Does the Source of Information Matter? — 2010
Information campaigns made more adults concerned about a pandemic, but didn't reassure them sufficiently about H1N1 vaccine safety and effectiveness that they got the vaccine.
Research Priorities for Syndromic Surveillance Systems Response: Consensus Development Using Nominal Group Technique — 2010
This paper describes an expert panel process that identified a set of fundable and practically feasible research priorities in the field of syndromic surveillance.
Early Detection of Influenza Outbreaks Using the DC Department of Health's Syndromic Surveillance System — 2009
If fined tuned algorithms are used, emergency room-based syndromic surveillance focusing on unspecified infection cases in children is an effective way to determine the beginning of the influenza outbreak.
A National Agenda for Public Health Systems Research on Emergency Preparedness — 2009
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response asked RAND to facilitate the development of a public health systems research agenda for emergency preparedness with a focus on both short- and long-term priorities.
Public Health Preparedness for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Weapons — 2009
Presents a broad overview of the U.S. public health response system, recent efforts to improve preparedness, challenges faced, and options for moving forward.
Public Health Preparedness for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Weapons — 2009
Review of what scientists and scholars know about WMD terrorism and America's options for confronting it.
Public Health Preparedness and Response to Chemical and Radiological Incidents: Functions, Practices, and Areas for Future Work — 2009
Discusses the role of public health agencies in emergency preparedness for and response to chemical and radiological incidents.
Risk Communication in the Early Stages of the H1N1 (Swine Flu) Alert: How Effective Were State and Local Public Health Departments? — 2009
Presents an assessment of how effectively state and local health departments communicated information regarding the April 2009 H1N1 virus (swine flu) outbreak via the Web to their constituents.
How Can We Strengthen the Evidence Base in Public Health Preparedness? — 2008
In this article, the authors argue that initial funding priorities for public health systems research on preparedness should focus on using engineering-style methods to identify core preparedness processes, developing novel data sources and measures based on smaller-scale proxy events, and developing performance improvement approaches to support the translation of research into practice within the wide variety of public health systems found in the nation.
Regional Infectious Disease Surveillance Networks and Their Potential to Facilitate the Implementation of the International Health Regulations — 2008
The International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 present a challenge and opportunity for global surveillance and control of infectious diseases.
A Step Forward in Accountability for Public Health Emergency Preparedness: Developing Standards for Mass Antibiotic Dispensing — 2008
This fact sheet summarizes the results of a RAND initiative to develop performance standards for distributing antibiotics and other lifesaving medical countermeasures on a large scale within the critical first 48 hours of a public health emergency.
A Review of Instruments Assessing Public Health Preparedness — 2005
The purpose of this study was to review instruments that assess the level of preparedness of state and local public health departments to respond to health threats such as bioterrorism.
Improving and Enhancing Telephone-based Disease Surveillance Systems in Local Health Departments — 2007
This report presents the findings of a project designed to identify system-level characteristics associated with consistently timely responses in telephone-based disease surveillance systems in local health departments.
Public Health Response to Urgent Case Reports — 2005
The authors evaluated the ability of local public health agencies (LPHAs) to meet a preparedness standard set by the U.S. CDC
Public Health Preparedness: Integrating Public Health and Hospital Preparedness Programs — 2006
Examines different models for coordination that have been employed by local health departments and general acute-care hospitals to improve public health preparedness.
The ISTSS/RAND Guidelines on Mental Health Training of Primary Healthcare Providers for Trauma-Exposed Populations in Conflict-Affected Countries — 2005
The Task Force on International Trauma Training, has developed evidence- and consensus-based guidelines for the mental health training of primary healthcare providers (PHPs) in conflict-affected developing countries. This article presents the Guidelines.
Terrorism's Psychologic Effects and Their Implications for Primary Care Policy, Research, and Education — 2005
This paper examines PCP roles in helping the nation prepare for, respond to, and recover from the psychologic consequences of CBRN terrorism.
Differences in Individual-Level Terrorism Preparedness in Los Angeles County — 2006
Increasing individual preparedness for disasters, including large-scale terrorist attacks, is a significant concern of public health planners.
Analysis of Department of Defense Plans and Responses to Three Potential Anthrax Incidents in March 2005: Executive Summary — 2006
What do three potential anthrax-related incidents at Defense Department mail facilities tell us about the readiness of the Pentagon and its planned responses to such incidents?
Public Health Preparedness in the 21st Century — 2006
Testimony presented before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Subcommittee on Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness on March 28, 2006.
Process Evaluation of Project Public Health Ready — 2005
An evaluation of the pilot year of Project Public Health Ready, a voluntary program for which participants receive recognition and which prepares local public health agencies to respond to bioterrorism and to protect the public's health.
Conceptualizing and Defining Public Health Emergency Preparedness — 2008
Discusses an effort to develop a clear and widely applicable definition of public health emergency preparedness (PHEP) that can provide a basis on which to develop PHEP standards and measures.
Exercises, Drills, and Tools
New Tools for Assessing State and Local Capabilities for Countermeasure Delivery — 2009
Presents assessments that test five critical elements of state and local health departments' capability to deliver countermeasures to the population under rapid timeframes.
Decision-Making Modules for the RSS-POD Supply Management Game: A Game-Based Assessment of Crisis Decision Making During Inventory Management and Distribution of Medical Countermeasures — 2009
Introduces and explains two new modules for the RSS-POD Supply Chain Management Game, an Excel-based computer simulation game designed to provide practice in managing inventories of medical countermeasures during a largescale public health emergency.
Strategies to Improve Global Influenza Surveillance: A Decision Tool for Policymakers — 2008
BMC Public Health, [Epub May 28 2008, 8:186]
Journal Article (may require registration or payment at BMC Public Health)
Designing and Conducting Tabletop Exercises to Assess Public Health Preparedness for Manmade and Naturally Occurring Biological Threats — 2007
Summarizes lessons learned from tabletop exercises about public health emergency preparedness and about the process of developing, conducting, and evaluating them.
Preparing Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Staff to Respond to Hospitals and Clinics Following Large-Scale Emergencies — 2007
Provides a curriculum that can be used to train hospital and clinic staff about how to prepare for and respond to the psychological consequences of large-scale disasters.
Preparing Hospitals and Clinics for the Psychological Consequences of a Terrorist Incident or Other Public Health Emergency — 2007
Provides a curricula that can be used to train hospital and clinic staff as well as department of mental health staff about how to prepare for and respond to the psychological consequences of large-scale disasters.
Improving and Enhancing Telephone-based Disease Surveillance Systems in Local Health Departments — 2007
This report presents the findings of a project designed to identify system-level characteristics associated with consistently timely responses in telephone-based disease surveillance systems in local health departments.
Enhancing Public Health Preparedness: Exercises, Exemplary Practices, and Lessons Learned, Phase III: Task E: Approaches for Developing a Volunteer Program to Respond to Public Health Emergencies — 2007
Lays out strategies and approaches for establishing or expanding a volunteer program to build workforce surge capacity in the event of a public health emergency.
Facilitated Look-Backs: A New Quality Improvement Tool for Management of Routine Annual and Pandemic Influenza — 2006
Describes a new quality-improvement tool that public health agencies can adopt to regularly look back at each routine annual influenza season to systematically institutionalize knowledge from one influenza season to the next.
Tabletop Exercise for Pandemic Influenza Preparedness in Local Public Health Agencies — 2006
A fully customizable template for a tabletop exercise for pandemic influenza preparedness for use by state and local health agencies and their healthcare and governmental partners as an exercise in training, relationship building, and evaluation.
Bioterrorism Preparedness Training and Assessment Exercises for Local Public Health Agencies — 2005
RAND developed the exercises in this manual as templates that local public health agencies (LPHAs) can customize and use to train public health workers in detecting and responding to bioterrorism events and assessing LPHAs' levels of preparedness.
Tests to Evaluate Public Health Disease Reporting Systems in Local Public Health Agencies — 2005
A manual of standardized proficiency tests to help public health agencies develop strategies for testing their disease reporting systems.
Public Health Response to Urgent Case Reports — 2005
The authors evaluated the ability of local public health agencies (LPHAs) to meet a preparedness standard set by the U.S. CDC
Enhancing Public Health Preparedness: Exercises, Exemplary Practices, and Lessons Learned: Assessing the Adequacy of Extant Exercises for Addressing Local and State Readiness for Public Health Emergencies — 2005
Develops and applies criteria for assessing the design of emergency response exercises used at the local, state, regional, national, or international level.
Lessons Learned
Community Planning for Pandemic Influenza: Lessons from the VA Health Care System, Disaster — 2008
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 206 269-78, 2008. PMID: 18824920
Recommended Infrastructure Standards for Mass Antibiotic Dispensing — 2008
This report presents recommended standards for points of dispensing (or PODs), locations where the public would receive life-saving antibiotics or other medical countermeasures during a large-scale public health emergency.
Bioterrorism with Zoonotic Disease: Public Health Preparedness Lessons from a Multiagency Exercise — 2007
This fact sheet describes tabletop exercises in six Georgia health districts and at the state level to understand what coordination and public health response are required among groups with diverse responsibilities and at different government levels.
Bioterrorism with Zoonotic Disease: Public Health Preparedness Lessons from a Multiagency Exercise — 2006
Reports on an exercise examining the intentional introduction of avian influenza in commercial poultry operations during a severe human influenza season and explores issues associated with public health preparedness for major disease outbreaks.
Analysis of Department of Defense Plans and Responses to Three Potential Anthrax Incidents in March 2005: Executive Summary — 2006
What do three potential anthrax-related incidents at Defense Department mail facilities tell us about the readiness of the Pentagon and its planned responses to such incidents?
Learning from Experience: The Public Health Response to West Nile Virus, SARS, Monkeypox, and Hepatitis A Outbreaks in the United States — 2005
Describes the response of state and local health departments to outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), monkeypox, West Nile virus, and hepatitis A.
In Their Own Words: Lessons Learned From Those Exposed to Anthrax — 2005
American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 95, No. 3, March 2005, pp. 489-495
Journal Article (may require registration or payment at American Journal of Public Health)
Quality Improvement and Measurement
Developing National Standards for Public Health Emergency Preparedness with a Limited Evidence Base — 2010
National performance standards for public health preparedness can be developed based on existing evidence, but would be helped immensely by a stronger evidence base.
Psychological Effects of Patient Surge in Large-Scale Emergencies: A Quality Improvement Tool for Hospital and Clinic Capacity Planning and Response — 2010
A novel and practical quality improvement tool can help hospitals and clinics plan for and respond to the psychological consequences of catastrophic events that create a surge of psychological casualties presenting for health care.
Initial Evaluation of the Cities Readiness Initiative — 2009
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked RAND to provide an initial evaluation of the impact of the Cities Readiness Initiative on awardees' readiness and capability to conduct mass countermeasure dispensing.
Analysis of Risk Communication Strategies and Approaches with At-Risk Populations to Enhance Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery: Final Report — 2009
Analyzes risk communications and public health messaging strategies and approaches with at-risk populations to enhance emergency preparedness, response, and recovery.
Enhancing Public Health Preparedness: Exercises, Exemplary Practices, and Lessons Learned, Phase III: Task B2: Final Report: Promoting Emergency Preparedness and Readiness for Pandemic Influenza (PREPARE for PI): Pilot Quality Improvement Learning Collaborative — 2007
Describes a pilot program for using quality improvement techniques in the area of public health -- specifically to prepare for a flu pandemic.
Quality Improvement in Public Health Emergency Preparedness — 2007
Quality improvement (QI) methods have been used in many industries to improve performance and outcomes.
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