This report, part of the Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Digital Health Conference, brings together system dynamic modeling and surge capacity to highlight the potential for future work to allow for the reallocation of resources in the event of shortage in some areas, and spare capacity in others.
This white paper highlights critical knowledge gaps as they relate to pandemic preparedness in urban environments and outlines six priority research areas.
This report briefs a Chatham House project is biological security to help identify the capacity-building activities required to strengthen African city preparedness for, and resilience to, biological threats. The project brings together a diverse range of expertise from the health, emergency management, and security sectors.
This joint project of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development seeks to provide guidance and tools for (i) creating an inclusive emergency management system, (ii) homeless service provision and service continuity, and (iii) provision of health services.
In November 2017, Georgetown University convened experts from across the university, the Washington, DC area, and the world to critically discuss and think about the current state of urban pandemic preparedness. Through a series of flash talks and a roundtable discussion, the participants identified important lessons to be learned from notable epidemics from the past decade, discussed challenges in public health emergency response actions, and proposed numerous avenues for future research.
The potential for spontaneous evacuation of urban residents following a disaster or public health crisis is rarely considered. Such an evacuation is a particular concern for rural areas, which would be quickly overwhelmed by the significant population increase. This document reports on a national survey to assess the evacuation intentions of urban citizens following emergency scenarios. Results suggest that many urban residents will evacuate their homes and communities following a disaster or public health emergency. This presents a multitude of challenges that will require collaboration between policymakers and emergency preparedness planners at the local/ community, county, state, regional, and national levels.
The goal of this document is to provide guidance on an approach and process for multijurisdictional urban areas to develop an all-hazards recovery framework before any major incident. By developing a comprehensive framework, many critical recovery decisions can be made at a regional level that can enable local jurisdictions to develop their own recovery plan. Developing a framework will help reduce the time and resources required to restore communities and critical infrastructure following a catastrophic incident. It will also assist policymakers and emergency managers to minimize the economic and public health impacts.
In December 2017, the NASEM Forum on Microbial Threats, in collaboration with the Board on Life Sciences hosted a workshop featuring discussions on the social, physical, environmental, and political drivers of infectious disease transmission in an increasingly urban and interconnected world; effective interventions and policies to achieve sustainable, health-promoting urban built environments; and strategies to close the research gap and scale up successful practices. The workshop rapporteurs have prepared these proceedings as a factual summation of the session discussions.
This report summarizes the discussions of a high-level meeting hosted by the World Health Organization in December of 2018. It outlines challenges and opportunities for preparing cities for public health emergencies.
