Edward W. Chan

Rebuild Public Health for the Next Pandemic?

COVID-19 exposed how underprepared the United States was for a pandemic and raised questions about preparedness for the next one. With political will to spend money on public health, how can America take a holistic view of all the options? And how should investments be prioritized?

Prepare for Disaster

Published commentary by RAND staff: Prepare for Disaster in the United Press International.

Tool

Climate Adaptation Strategies for National Critical Functions

This tool presents climate adaptation strategies for a set of National Critical Functions (NCFs) that are capable of mitigating the risks posed by climate change.

Report

Securing U.S. Elections: A Method for Prioritizing Cybersecurity Risk in Election Infrastructure

Researchers from the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center have developed a methodology for understanding and prioritizing cybersecurity risk in election infrastructure to assist state and local election officials.

Report

Assessing Risk to the National Critical Functions as a Result of Climate Change

Researchers developed a framework to assess and manage the risk that climate change poses to National Critical Functions, then used the framework to assess the most-vulnerable ones. This report details the risk assessment portions of the framework.

Report

Health and Social Services in Puerto Rico Before and After Hurricane Maria: Predisaster Conditions, Hurricane Damage, and Themes for Recovery

This overview of health and social services in Puerto Rico includes 31 courses of action to better recover from health crises, build a more resilient system to future disasters, and actively promote health and well-being.

Report

Community Planning and Capacity Building in Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria: Predisaster Conditions, Hurricane Damage, and Courses of Action

The authors detail the status of Puerto Rico's communities leading up to Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the storms' impact on them, and 15 courses of action to improve their capacity for emergency preparedness, communication, and recovery planning.

Commentary

Securing U.S. Elections Against Cyber Threats: Considerations for Supply Chain Risk Management

The supply chain for components of U.S. election systems and equipment is at the core of election security. The authors of this Perspective describe the supply chain–related risks to election cybersecurity and integrity and how they can be managed.

Report

Options for Ensuring Safe Elections: Preparing for Elections During a Pandemic

Voting and registration options can help ensure safe elections despite the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Each option has advantages; challenges; and different levels of risk regarding safety, integrity, access, and logistics.

Report

Options for Maintaining Clinical Proficiency During Peacetime

The U.S. Army Medical Department cares for war wounded during conflict and operates medical treatment facilities that care for service members, their beneficiaries, and military retirees. How can the Army help providers prepare at home for wartime?

Report

The Risk-Mitigation Value of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential: A Comprehensive Security Assessment of the TWIC Program

The Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) is designed to enhance security at U.S. ports. This report provides the findings from an assessment of the TWIC program, along with the assessors' recommendations.

Research Brief

Critical Care Surge Capacity in U.S. Hospitals: Strategies for Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this brief, the authors present methods for creating critical care surge capacity in hospitals in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and estimate patient capacity, given the number of doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, ventilators, and beds.

Report

Critical Care Surge Response Strategies for the 2020 COVID-19 Outbreak in the United States

In this report, the authors present strategies for creating critical care surge capacity in hospitals and estimate patient capacity, given the number of available critical care doctors and nurses, respiratory therapists, ventilators, and beds.

Tool

RAND Critical Care Surge Response Tool: An Excel-Based Model for Helping Hospitals Respond to the COVID-19 Crisis

A Microsoft Excel-based tool that allows decisionmakers at all levels -- hospitals, health care systems, states, regions -- responding to the COVID-19 crisis to estimate current critical care capacity and rapidly explore strategies for increasing it.

Report

Personnel Recovery in the AFRICOM Area of Responsibility: Cost-Effective Options for Improvement

This report identifies the most cost-effective options for improving medical rescue capabilities in U.S. Africa Command's area of responsibility.

Report

Core Competencies for Amputation Rehabilitation

The authors identify core competencies and behaviors in nine provider disciplines that participate in amputation rehabilitation and offer recommendations on how to implement them in the military health setting.

Journal Article

Assessing and Improving Hospital Mass-Casualty Preparedness: A No-Notice Exercise

An exercise developed for hospitals helps them assess and improve their readiness for mass casualty incidents.

Commentary

Inventory Reduction Without Regret: Balancing Storage and Rebuy Costs

The Army should assess the cost of inventory not on its total dollar value but instead on long-term factors such as storage costs, repair costs, and the risk of rebuy.

Journal Article

Wearing Many Hats: Lessons About Emergency Preparedness and Routine Public Health from the H1N1 Response

Describes some of the challenges the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) faced during the pH1N1 response associated with simultaneous operation of emergency and routine operations.

Report

Improving DLA Supply Chain Agility: Lead Times, Order Quantities, and Information Flow

This report examines how the Defense Logistics Agency could improve its supply chain agility, focusing on reducing lead times, right-sizing order quantities, and mitigating the effects of demand shifts through improved customer information flow.

Report

Efficient Aviation Security: Strengthening the Analytic Foundation for Making Air Transportation Security Decisions

Presents a set of analyses intended to help fill some of the current gaps in analysis of the costs, benefits, and efficiency of aviation security measures and strategies in the face of uncertainty.

Report

Improving Joint Expeditionary Medical Planning Tools Based on a Patient Flow Approach

The authors propose a planning concept for U.S. military expeditionary medical care that promotes patient flow rate as the common unit of measurement for treatment and evacuation functions.

Report

Analysis of the Cities Readiness Initiative

Examines (1) the status of communities' capability to deliver medical countermeasures within 48 hours of a federal decision to deploy assets and (2) whether the Cities Readiness Initiative has improved communities' capability to meet that goal.

Journal Article

Assessing the Security Benefits of a Trusted Traveler Program in the Presence of Attempted Attacker Exploitation and Compromise

Examines the security costs and benefits of a trusted traveler program, in which individuals who have been identified as posing less risk than others are allowed to pass through security checkpoints with reduced security screening.

Draft

Assessing the Security Benefits of a Trusted Traveler Program in the Presence of Attempted Attacker Exploitation and Compromise

Examines the security costs and benefits of a trusted traveler program, in which individuals who have been identified as posting less risk than others are allowed to pass through security with reduced security screening.

Report

The Economics of Air Force Medical Service Readiness

To transition rapidly to wartime service, Air Force Medical Service critical-care providers need suitable peacetime training opportunities, and this work must be properly attributed to AFMS so that it receives proper credit in budget distributions.

Journal Article

Developing National Standards for Public Health Emergency Preparedness with a Limited Evidence Base

National performance standards for public health preparedness can be developed based on existing evidence, but would be helped immensely by a stronger evidence base.

Journal Article

Federal Initiative Increases Community Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies

This article describes an evaluation of the Cities Readiness Initiative, a federal program to improve communities' ability to dispense medications rapidly during emergencies.

Draft

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

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.

Draft

The RSS-POD Supply Chain Management Game: An Exercise for Improving the Inventory Management and Distribution of Medical Countermeasures

Introduces and explains the RSS-POD Supply Chain Management Game, a Microsoft Excel-based simulation game designed to provide practice in managing inventory of medical countermeasures during large-scale public health emergency.

Report

New Tools for Assessing State and Local Capabilities for Countermeasure Delivery

Presents assessments that test five critical elements of state and local health departments' capability to deliver countermeasures to the population under rapid timeframes.

Draft

A Workshop Template to Assess and Improve SNS Planning

Contains a template that public health agencies can use to conduct a workshop to improve key aspects of Strategic National Stockpile planning: pediatric dispensing, altered standards of care, and allocation of scarce resources.

Research Brief

Are Communities Ready to Conduct Rapid and Large-Scale Dispensing of Medications During a Public Health Emergency?

This research highlight summarizes the findings of RAND's initial evaluation of the Cities Readiness Initiative and the program's impact on communities' readiness to conduct mass dispensing of medications and other medical supplies.

Report

How Should Air Force Expeditionary Medical Capabilities Be Expressed?

A new metric for measuring expeditionary medical support based on the medical STEP rate of each component of the system -- a more accurate measure of capability than the current measure, number of beds.

Report

Initial Evaluation of the Cities Readiness Initiative

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.

Research Brief

A Step Forward in Accountability for Public Health Emergency Preparedness: Developing Standards for Mass Antibiotic Dispensing

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.

Report

Recommended Infrastructure Standards for Mass Antibiotic Dispensing

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.

Journal Article

How Can We Strengthen the Evidence Base in Public Health Preparedness?

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.

Draft

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

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.

Draft

Improving Global Influenza Surveillance: Strategies for the U.S. Government

Identifies strategies for improving global influenza surveillance and suggests practical steps that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services might consider for implementing them.

Report

Implementing Security Improvement Options at Los Angeles International Airport

Reasserting the need for reducing the density of people in unsecured areas at Los Angeles International Airport, the authors advise that adding security film to the tempered windows will likely not reduce fatalities in the event of a bomb detonation.

Research Brief

New Analytic Tools Evaluate Overseas Combat Support Basing Options for the U.S. Air Force

RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) developed a set of analytic tools that can be used to evaluate various storage options to meet a given set of operational scenarios.

Report

Near-Term Options for Improving Security at Los Angeles International Airport

Examining near-term options for reducing the terrorist threat to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), this study assesses LAX’s vulnerability to a wide range of possible terrorist actions and examines possible alternative courses of action.

Report

Supporting Air and Space Expeditionary Forces: Lessons from Operation Enduring Freedom

Presents an analysis of Air Force combat support experiences associated with Operation Enduring Freedom and compares these experiences with those associated with Operation Allied Force (OAF) to determine similarities and applicability of lessons across ex

Report

Supporting Air and Space Expeditionary Forces: Analysis of Combat Support Basing Options

Evaluates global forward support locations (FSLs) for storing war reserve materiel and presents a framework for evaluating FSL options.