The Institute of Medicine will convene an ad hoc committee with experts in emergency medical response and treatment, medical and public health preparedness, health sciences research, and nuclear medicine to organize a workshop and prepare a summary on the current level of public health preparedness for a nuclear event in tier 1 Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) city. The workshop will feature presentations and discussions that assess the health care capacity to treat an affected population with the goal of assuring a safe and effective response to nuclear incidents by civilian and government medical systems and public health services. Specifically the workshop will:

1. Review and summarize the overall emergency response activities, and available healthcare capacity (including shelter, evacuation, decontamination, and medical infrastructure interdependencies) to treat the affected population;
2. Examine the capacity and identify gaps in the capability of the Federal, State and local authorities to deliver available medical countermeasures in a timely enough way to be effective;
3. Review and summarize available treatments for pertinent radiation illnesses including the efficacy of medical countermeasures; and,
4. Appraise the expected benefit of medical countermeasures, including those currently under development.