Twitter, Social Media and Emergency Preparedness!

Today, I spent an hour or so introducing a group of Medical Reserve Corps leaders to the world of Twitter. I have personally been using Twitter for a number of months. In fact, this blog feeds to my Twitter account automatically.

Now, for those who are working in the fields of emergency preparedness and public health, Twitter has a great deal to offer in terms of the aggregation of vast amounts of information on specific topics of interest. Swine flu has been an excellent example of Twitter's utility for keeping track of trends vis-a-vis the development of the disease, especially when such players as the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Health and Human Services, FEMA, and the FDA chime in on their Twitter feeds multiple times per day.

Someone in our training stated that it's remarkable that the CDC and other large organizations actually pay someone to aggregate their material and post it on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites. However, I would beg to differ. I would actually find it remarkable if these organizations chose to not utilize social networking as a means of getting their message out there. There are segments of the population who rely on social networking for news, friendship, professional networking and entertainment, and savvy organizations with something to communicate are intelligently jumping on this bandwagon.

In terms of my friends and colleagues in the emergency preparedness world, one of my warnings was that, while Twitter and other sites can be fun and informative, it is best to keep a tight rein on who one chooses to follow and how much time one devotes to such an endeavor. Social media can be an enormous time waster, and even the most diligent of us can be unwittingly sucked in, even when the clock is ticking and there is work to be done.

That said, if one is interested in knowing the latest information on swine flu, public health threats, fires, product recalls and disease outbreaks, there is a veritable river of useful information flowing on Twitter that can keep one up to speed on a daily basis.

Social networking has certainly found a variety of audiences, and it remains to be seen how these applications will change and grow as they become more popular and their creators decide how to monetize them. Twitter is still a free service that's 100% free of ads, but I'm fairly certain that we will eventually see some form of ads on Twitter, just as we have seen ads develop as Facebook found its place in the online universe.

For emergency preparedness folks, tracking the trends and keeping in touch with colleagues on the front lines is a very useful way to apply Twitter to the work that we do. When emergency response teams on the ground can post brief and informative up-to-the-minute tweets about their current status vis-a-vis an ongoing emergency, everyone wins. And when we can easily track the progress of a new disease or other emerging threat with an application that's easy to use and free, there truly seems to be nothing to lose.

I'm happy to be opening my colleague's eyes to the uses of blogging and social for public health and emergency preparedness and response, and if these processes and applications actually serve to improve lives or otherwise positively impact our good work in the world, then I am a happy nurse indeed.

Swine Flu and the Rubber Meets The Road

When a novel infectious disease makes its presence known, the public health infrastructure swings into action. Now, with the rapid emergence of swine flu in a number of countries around the world, this is a prime example of where the public health rubber meets the road.

Today, the World Health Organization raised the pandemic level for swine flu to Phase 4, meaning that there is now documented human-to-human transmission of a virus "able to sustain community-wide outbreaks". The WHO pandemic classification uses a scale of 1 to 6, with a rating of 6 signifying a global pandemic, a potential that officials are quick to say may or may not occur.

While no one in the United States has yet died from swine flu infection, the public health community takes the situation seriously, especially in light of the rising death toll in Mexico, and the emergence of disease in Spain, Scotland and Canada. in Queens, New York, a number of children who traveled to Mexico over spring vacation have been officially diagnosed with swine flu, and there are reports of school closings in various parts of the country.

Today, conference calls were scheduled by the CDC, state departments of public health, and other major players in the public health and emergency preparedness arenas.

Since I just recently attended the Integrated Medical, Public Health, Preparedness and Response Training Summit in Dallas last month, I am acutely aware of how the CDC's Strategic National Stockpile figures largely into the response to just this type of public health emergency, and word has it that large amounts of stockpiled antiviral medications are at the ready if mass prophyaxis of the population is needed.

I am duly impressed by the rapid response of the CDC, FEMA and other important agencies involved in the effort vis-a-vis the swine flu outbreak, and we are ready to activate our local Medical Reserve Corps chapter if emergency dispensing of medications or other municipal response is needed.

Speaking of the Medical Reserve Corps, this swine flu outbreak is yet another example of why we need more medical (and non-medical) volunteers to join their local chapters. The MRC is an important part of the public health and emergency response infrastructure, and having a network of thousands of screened, vetted and trained volunteers ready to be mobilized across the country to assist in the response to these types of situations is crucial to protecting local, regional and national responders from being overwhelmed in the case of a surge of need on the part of the public.

For up-to-date information on the outbreak, visit the CDC's Swine Flu Website. This is not a tie for panic, yet it is also a time for vigilance, good hygeine and handwashing, and a circumspectful caution vis-a-vis individuals who exhibit any signs of flu-like illness. Medical providers are receiving detailed information regarding the epidemiology, symptoms and treatment of swine flu. Any individual with flu-like symptoms should refrain from going to work, school or other public places. Such individuals should absolutely wear a mask when in public, and should visit a medical provider as soon as possible.

As a local public health official, I am watching this situation carefully along with my colleagues, and we are in frequent communication with our state department of public health, our local schools, area colleges, and other partner agencies.

The public health infrastructure is indeed in full swing, and I am currently swept up in the rising tide of surveillance as the outbreak widens and deepens.

Emergency Response and Preparedness

After five days of hearing about emergency preparedness and response at the Integrated Medical Public Health, Preparedness and Response Training Summit, I'm ready to go back to work and hit the ground running. I have my work cut out for me, and this conference fed me ideas and inspiration for how to move my own agenda forward in our town of 30,000.

People of all stripes flocked to this very well-organized first-of-its-kind summit, and we all rubbed shoulders and elbows in dozens of trainings pertaining to emergency response. With visits from the Deputy Surgeon General and other dignitaries, many words were shared about how the United States is now better prepared than ever in terms of having the capability to respond to disasters of many kinds.

As a new public health professional, many of these concepts are relatively new to me, and I certainly do not live and breathe these subjects as so many of my colleagues do. Still, as coordinator of a local chapter of the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), it is my responsibility to make sure that our town's readiness to respond to public health emergencies is robust, and my primary goal at this point in time is to recruit members for our MRC, creating a body of credentialed and registered volunteers who can be mobilized at a moment's notice when the need arises, whether it be to vaccinate elders against the flu or staff a Red Cross shelter during a blizzard.

While "disaster" is one of the operative words in the preparedness world, many MRC's simply take part in activities that enhance the public health of their communities, and I'm striving to create an active and engaged MRC that does just that. The importance of volunteerism is one of the hallmarks of President Obama's overall message to the American people, and I plan to capitalize on that message as I take the gospel of the Medical Reserve Corps to medical practices, retirement communities, and civic organizations where interested people are just waiting for a way to give back.

I have many responsibilities in my job as a Public Health Nurse, and emergency preparedness is only one of the hats that adorn my head on a regular basis. This conference was certainly an eye-opener, and I hope that I can translate my new learning and inspiration into action on the ground and a new group of eager volunteers ready to do their part.

Greetings from Dallas, Texas!

I am here in Dallas attending the 2009 Integrated Medical, Public Health, Preparedness and Response Training Summit which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

As a Public Health Nurse and Coordinator of a local chapter of the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), I am taking part in this summit as a local public health official and MRC leader trained to respond to any emergency endangering the health and safety of any citizen. Groups of firefighters, EMTs, veterinarian specialists, animal rescue specialists, Medical Reserve Corps members and leaders, and a host of other emergency preparedness and response players are here to network, connect and learn in a robust and collaborative environment.

Subjects covered in the summit include mass fatality events, terrorism, animal rescue, weather emergencies, decontamination, volunteer recruitment and management, and all manner of detailed trainings geared to enhancing emergency response on a local, regional and national level.

I hope to glean a great deal of valuable information from this training, subsequently bringing home crucial learning that will enhance my ability to effectively achieve the goals of my multifaceted professional responsibilities.

Does Emergency Preparedness Make Sense?

Yesterday, I spent eight hours with folks from the Centers for Disease Control, learning about how to communicate with the public and the media during public health emergencies. While this stuff can indeed be pretty dry, I must say I was quite impressed with the way the CDC puts these trainings together. The presenters kept it lively and interactive, and group exercises broke up the day nicely.

Although these trainings do indeed seem to focus on potential scenarios involving anthrax or other terrorist activity (something which I see as highly unlikely), having public health officials who know how to communicate with the public doesn't seem like such a bad idea, really.

While people don't generally want to think or talk about preparing for unknown dangers which may or may not happen some time in the future, I'm beginning to get a sense of the larger picture and how the government is striving to create a coordinated system in which metropolitan areas, small towns, and even rural areas are accounted for in emergency preparedness.

Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent in order to create the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), the Cities Readiness Initiative, and other very complex and, ultimately costly, programs. Many people would question whether this money would have been more well spent on creating jobs, improving infrastructure, green technologies and other important issues of the day. From my perspective, this would be an excellent question to pose, however the emergency preparedness train is fully out of the station since 9/11/01, and there's simply no way to reign this one in, for better or for worse.

So, taxpayers of America, be advised that, yes, there are huge warehouses of medications at strategic points throughout the country, ready to bring antibiotics and antivirals to your town in case they're needed in a hurry. There are also thousands of people like myself constantly undergoing training in order to be able to bring those medications to you in a real emergency.

Taking into consideration the likelihood of a terrorist attack, an influenza pandemic, or another scenario in which these assets would indeed be deployed, one might be led to wonder why so much money has been sunk into these efforts of preparing for that which may never occur.

These are good questions to ask and valid points to consider. The fact is, however, that the behometh of emergency preparedness is a beast with a life (and a budget) of its own, and even though I sometimes question the amount of money being set aside for such efforts at a time of economic turmoil, as a public health official I must fulfill my mandated mission of taking these tasks seriously as I increase my knowledge of such a new and complicated world.

Emergency Preparedness Day

Today was a day focused on emergency preparedness. At work, a colleague who is an emergency preparedness consultant went with me to three town schools in order to survey the buildings' potential to serve as Emergency Dispensing Sites (EDS).

An EDS is a facility designated to be the operations center wherein a town accesses emergency medications from the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), a national repository of medications designed for a swift response to terrorism, epidemics, and other public health emergencies. The EDS can be a school, a community center or any building that can accommodate large crowds as they're shepherded through for triage and treatment in an orderly manner.

It was an eye-opening experience, and I came away with a much more robust understanding of what it means to set up an EDS in my town, and which buildings are more appropriate that others.

This evening, following a long day of work, I attended a training on Psychological First Aid, a key to helping people in the immediate aftermath of various types of disaster.

My baptism into the world of emergency preparedness continues, and it will only become deeper as I delve further into my (seemingly growing) responsibilities.

The Challenge of Emergency Preparedness

One of my new professional challenges is learning everything I can about emergency preparedness. I am now, in effect, responsible for emergency preparedness planning for my entire town, thus I am confronting the steep learning curve that that responsibility engenders.

From what I can gather, emergency preparedness operates on several levels, each of which offers its own set of challenges:

For individuals and families, being prepared for emergencies entails family disaster plans, food, water, communication devices such as hand-cranked or battery-operated radios, first aid, flashlights and other equipment, sanitation and hygiene concerns, pets, important family papers, bedding, medications, clothing, as well as the needs of children, the elderly, and the disabled. For a comprehensive list of what a household Basic Emergency Kit should contain, click here.

For neighborhoods, emergency preparedness means identifying vulnerable neighbors, making plans for their care in the event of an emergency, and appointing individuals or groups of individuals to share responsibility for those identified members of the community.

On the municipal level, preparations for disasters, severe weather, terrorism, power outages and public health emergencies obviously encompass the individuals, families and neighborhoods which make up a municipality. However, municipal emergency preparedness also takes into account the need to provide emergency shelter, mass dispensation of medications of vaccinations in the case of epidemics or pandemics, as well as support for potentially overwhelmed first responders.

While the current wave of emergency preparedness was indeed galvanized by the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States and other countries have seen how varying levels of preparedness on the local, state, and federal level can fail or succeed in the face of natural disasters. Despite the efforts of many, it is painfully clear that the federal response to Hurricane Katrina caused enormous (and altogether preventable) suffering on the part of residents of the American Gulf Coast. The Bush Administration and FEMA failed miserably in their collective response to Katrina, and many people died unnecessarily as a result of systemic problems and governmental hubris.

Although some may still fear terrorist attacks in the form of biological weapons and bombings on American soil, I feel that it is far more likely that our level of preparedness for the unexpected will be tested in the form of natural disasters (hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes) and outbreaks of disease (such as pandemic influenza). The recent ice storms in Massachusetts and wild fires in California are two examples of how coordinated efforts on the part of local, state and federal entities are crucial to disaster response, rescue and recovery.

Now, my personal task is to take the helm of my local branch of the Medical Reserve Corps, connect with local, regional and state emergency preparedness officials, and put together a comprehensive preparedness plan for our town of approximately 40,000 residents. Steep learning curve is right, and I will certainly be blogging about my progress as I move forward with this and my other new public health duties, so please stay tuned.