24,369 research outputs found
Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health From Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, 2011
Highlights examples of preparedness programs and capacities at risk of federal budget cuts or elimination, examines state and local public health budget cuts, reviews ten years of progress and shortfalls, and outlines policy issues and recommendations
Transportation and Distribution of Strategic National Stockpile Supplies in a Public Health Emergency
In the event of a public health emergency in the United States, it is important that public
authorities are equipped to distribute medical supplies to every person in need as quickly as
possible. Federal guidelines state that all persons in an area affected by a public health
emergency should receive their medical countermeasures within 48 hours of the emergency’s
declaration. While the CDC has determined a general dispensing plan for each state and county
to follow, it is ultimately up to the state and county to formalize and implement detailed plans.
A body of academic literature focuses on optimizing the placement and operation of Points of
Dispensing (PODs), which are mass dispensing locations the public visits to receive
countermeasures. However, very few papers have considered the logistics associated with
moving countermeasures from state receiving areas to county-level PODs. This research
addresses this gap through service network design and transportation modeling. Specifically,
the feasibility of a multi-tiered distribution model is evaluated for a case study region
representative of a US state comprised of a mix of urban and rural areas
Driving improvements in emerging disease surveillance through locally-relevant capacity strengthening
Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) threaten the health of people, animals, and crops globally, but our ability to predict their occurrence is limited. Current public health capacity and ability to detect and respond to EIDs is typically weakest in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Many known drivers of EID emergence also converge in LMICs. Strengthening capacity for surveillance of diseases of relevance to local populations can provide a mechanism for building the cross-cutting and flexible capacities needed to tackle both the burden of existing diseases and EID threats. A focus on locally relevant diseases in LMICs and the economic, social, and cultural contexts of surveillance can help address existing inequalities in health systems, improve the capacity to detect and contain EIDs, and contribute to broader global goals for development
A Killer Flu?
Examines shortfalls in available anti-viral medication and hospital capacity to respond to an epidemic, compares U.S. preparedness to that of the United Kingdom and Canada, and offers recommendations designed to boost America's preparedness
Type 2 myocardial infarction: the chimaera of cardiology?
The term type 2 myocardial infarction first appeared as part of the universal definition of myocardial infarction. It was introduced to cover a group of patients who had elevation of cardiac troponin but did not meet the traditional criteria for acute myocardial infarction although they were considered to have an underlying ischaemic aetiology for the myocardial damage observed. Since first inception, the term type 2 myocardial infarction has always been vague. Although attempts have been made to produce a systematic definition of what constitutes a type 2 myocardial infarction, it has been more often characterised by what it is not rather than what it is. Clinical studies that have used type 2 myocardial infarction as a diagnostic criterion have produced disparate incidence figures. The range of associated clinical conditions differs from study to study. Additionally, there are no agreed or evidence-based treatment strategies for type 2 myocardial infarction. The authors believe that the term type 2 myocardial infarction is confusing and not evidence-based. They consider that there is good reason to stop using this term and consider instead the concept of secondary myocardial injury that relates to the underlying pathophysiology of the primary clinical condition
A Novel Framework for Software Defined Wireless Body Area Network
Software Defined Networking (SDN) has gained huge popularity in replacing
traditional network by offering flexible and dynamic network management. It has
drawn significant attention of the researchers from both academia and
industries. Particularly, incorporating SDN in Wireless Body Area Network
(WBAN) applications indicates promising benefits in terms of dealing with
challenges like traffic management, authentication, energy efficiency etc.
while enhancing administrative control. This paper presents a novel framework
for Software Defined WBAN (SDWBAN), which brings the concept of SDN technology
into WBAN applications. By decoupling the control plane from data plane and
having more programmatic control would assist to overcome the current lacking
and challenges of WBAN. Therefore, we provide a conceptual framework for SDWBAN
with packet flow model and a future direction of research pertaining to SDWBAN.Comment: Presented on 8th International Conference on Intelligent Systems,
Modelling and Simulatio
Supplier selection under disaster uncertainty with joint procurement
Master of ScienceDepartment of Industrial & Manufacturing Systems EngineeringJessica L. Heier StammHealth care organizations must have enough supplies and equipment on hand to adequately respond to events such as terrorist attacks, infectious disease outbreaks, and natural disasters. This is achieved through a robust supply chain system. Nationwide, states are assessing their current supply chains to identify gaps that may present issues during disaster preparedness and response. During an assessment of the Kansas health care supply chain, a number of vulnerabilities were identified, one of which being supplier consolidation. Through mergers and acquisitions, the number of suppliers within the health care field has been decreasing over the years. This can pose problems during disaster response when there is a surge in demand and multiple organizations are relying on the same suppliers to provide equipment and supplies. This thesis explores the potential for joint procurement agreements to encourage supplier diversity by splitting purchasing among multiple suppliers. In joint procurement, two or more customers combine their purchases into one large order so that they can receive quantity discounts from a supplier.
This research makes three important contributions to supplier selection under disaster uncertainty. The first of these is the development of a scenario-based supplier selection model under uncertainty with joint procurement. This optimization model can be used to observe customer purchasing decisions in various scenarios while considering the probability of disaster occurrence. Second, the model is applied to a set of experiments to analyze the results when supplier diversity is increased and when joint procurement is introduced. This leads to the third and final contribution: a set of recommendations for health care organization decision makers regarding ways to increase supplier diversity and decrease the risk of disruption associated with disaster occurrence
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