Strategies for Strengthening the Resilience of Public Health Systems for Pandemics, Disasters, and Other Emergencies

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify and prioritize strategies for strengthening public health system resilience for pandemics, disasters, and other emergencies using a scorecard approach. METHODS: The United Nations Public Health System Resilience Scorecard (Scorecard) was applied across 5 workshops in Slovenia, Turkey, and the United States of America. The workshops focused on participants reviewing and discussing 23 questions/indicators. A Likert type scale was used for scoring with zero being the lowest and 5 the highest. The workshop scores were analyzed and discussed by participants to prioritize areas of need and develop resilience strategies. Data from all workshops were aggregated, analyzed, and interpreted to develop priorities representative of participating locations. RESULTS: Eight themes emerged representing the need for better integration of public health and disaster management systems. These include: assessing community disease burden; embedding long-term recovery groups in emergency systems; exploring mental health care needs; examining ecosystem risks; evaluating reserve funds; identifying what crisis communication strategies worked well; providing non-medical services; and reviewing resilience of existing facilities, alternate care sites, and institutions. CONCLUSIONS: The Scorecard is an effective tool for establishing baseline resilience and prioritizing actions. The strategies identified reflect areas in most need for investment to improve public health system resilience

mHeath Technology: Collaborating for Good

The purpose of this research is to share insights on an action research project aimed at building a virtual reality simulation (VRS) to improve health outcomes of residents in India’s urban slums. The project brings together cross-sector, cross-cultural and cross-industry partners in a social innovation collaboration. Using an interpretive case study approach, the following research questions emerged: (1) What contradictions arise when building a VRS to improve health outcomes of slum residents of India? (2) How are contradictions prevented from moving to conflicts that negatively impact building the VRS? Preliminary findings illuminate contradictions relating to the university’s control structures and the inclusion of the virtual reality component, leading to conflict management approaches proposed. The study has implications to theories often used in technology development research, which typically do not include humanitarian motivations that override profit motivations. Further, research on the roles of creativity and cultural humility in systems development is limited

Collaborating for the Good: Improving Health in India\u27s Slums with Mobile Technology

How do stakeholders collaborate to build technology that helps marginalized populations who are difficult to reach? This study reports on an action research project that develops a mobile health application to help people living in India™s slums and rur

Prioritizing strategies for building the resilience of public health systems to disasters across multiple communities and countries

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgent need to strengthen public health systems. In response, the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Public Health System Resilience Scorecard (Scorecard) was applied in workshops across multiple countries. The aim of our research was to explore the workshop findings to develop priority strategies for strengthening public health system resilience. We conducted a workshop from 14 to 16 March 2023, at the UNDRR Global Education and Training Institute in Incheon, Republic of Korea. A sequential modified Delphi method was utilized to develop a set of prioritized resilience strategies. These were drawn from 70 strategies identified from 13 distinct workshops in eight countries. After two surveys, 23 strategies were finalized. Ten received ratings of “High” or “Very High” from 89% of participants. These related to the inclusion of public health risks in emergency plans, integrating multidisciplinary teams into public health, enabling local transport mechanisms, and improving the ability to manage an influx of patients. The Scorecard provides an adaptable framework to identify and prioritize strategies for strengthening public health system resilience. By leveraging this methodology, our study demonstrated how resilience strategies could inform disaster risk reduction funding, policies, and actions

Scientific Opinion on the re-evaluation of Azorubine/Carmoisine (E 122) as a food additive on request the European Commission:Question number: EFSA-Q-2008-226

The Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food provides a scientific opinion re-evaluating the safety of Azorubine/Carmoisine (E 122). Azorubine/Carmoisine has previously been evaluated by JECFA in 1983 and the SCF in 1984. Both committees established an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of 0-4 mg/kg bw/day. The Panel was not provided with a newly submitted dossier and based its evaluation on previous evaluations, additional literature that became available since then and the data available following a public call for data. New studies included a study reporting alterations in the morphology of somatic chromosomes in Secale cereale (rye), and a study by McCann et al. that concluded that exposure to mixtures including Azorubine/Carmoisine, resulted in increased hyperactivity in 3-years old and 8- to 9-years old children. The Panel notes that the study in rye was not a standard genotoxicity assay, and concluded, given that all other genotoxicity tests were negative and that Azorubine/Carmoisine does not contain a structural alert, that there is no concern with respect to genotoxicity. The Panel also concurs with the conclusion from a previous EFSA opinion on the McCann et al. study that the findings of the study cannot be used as a basis for altering the ADI. The Panel concludes that the present database does not give reason to revise the ADI of 4 mg/kg bw/day. The Panel also concludes that at the maximum reported levels of use, refined intake estimates are below the ADI, although in 1- to 10-year old children the high percentile of exposure (95th) can be slightly higher than the ADI at the upper end of the range