Workshop on Dispensing Medical Countermeasures
The Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Catastrophic Events will hold a workshop entitled “Dispensing Medical Countermeasures” March 3-4 in Washington D.C. The purpose of the workshop will be to engage a broad community from the public and private sectors to discuss a set of potential innovated strategies to improve countermeasure dispensing.
The delivery of medical countermeasures has been identified as one of the major challenges facing the medical and public health community. The United States has made significant progress in public health and medical preparedness since 2001. However, given the continued challenges still facing the public health system, these successes need to be built upon to begin to address both the near-term and long-term needs of the federal, state, and local preparedness and response systems. The United States remains ill-prepared to fully address all of the public health and protection needs arising from biological events of the scale of a 1918-like pandemic or an outdoor wide-area aerosolized anthrax attack. If such an event were to happen now, the results would be catastrophic. This lack of preparation is not just a public health, government or even healthcare system problem; it is community problem, involving every sector at every jurisdictional level. Community-level planning, capacity and response is pivotal for successful mitigation of biological events, and this ability is fundamental to our national security.
Although much work has been done in this area, the public health community still does not have adequate resources or experience in the logistics of wide scale distribution. Moreover, declining investments in state and local public health budgets are limiting their ability to deliver countermeasures. Moreover, there are specific problems associated with dispensing countermeasures from localities to individuals. A successful effort to develop actionable near-term options will require the engagement of a broader community including the private sector.
The workshop will engage the appropriate communities on the local, state, and national levels, as well as across the public and private sectors, to identify and discuss the most promising near-term opportunities for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of frameworks designed for medical countermeasure dispensing. Presentations and discussions on a variety of relevant topics such as model frameworks, potential public-private partnerships, workforce requirements, security, and legal liability will be featured. The workshop will also aim to help elucidate a working solution that can be adapted and expanded over time.
Specifically, an ad hoc planning committee will organize a public workshop that will invite experts in countermeasure dispensing and other relevant related areas to present data and stimulate discussion on the following central questions:
1. What are the most promising near-term opportunities for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of frameworks designed for medical countermeasure dispensing?
2. What innovations, tools, technologies, and frameworks are available from sectors outside the traditional public health system?
3. What resources and infrastructure investments will be necessary in the short- and long-term?
4. What potential partnerships are needed to support and conduct improvements of dispensing medical countermeasures?
Planning Committee Membership
Lynne Kidder (Co-Chair)
Business Executives for National Security
Matthew Minson (Co-Chair)
ASPR, DHHS
Ann Beauchesne, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Stephanie Dulin, Strategic National Stockpile, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Perry Fri, Healthcare Distribution Management Association
Lynn Goldman, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Jeffrey holmes, PRTM
Jason F. Jackson, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Lisa Koonin ,Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Jon Krohmer, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Patrick Libbey, National Association of County and City Health Officials
Christopher Magee, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Carter Mecher, White House Homeland Security Council
Scott Mugno, FedEx
Erin Mullen, Rx Response, PhRMA
Cheryl Peterson, American Nurses Association
Phillip Schneider, National Association of Chain Drug Stores
IOM Project Staff
Bruce Altevogt, Study Director
Andrew Pope, Director Board on Health Sciences Policy
Marnina Kammersell, Research Associate
Alex Repace, Senior Program Assistant