Enhancing BioWatch Capabilities Through Technology and Collaboration Proceedings of a Workshop (2017) / Chapter Skim
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4 BioWatch Collaborative Planning
4 BioWatch Collaborative Planning
Pages 43-62
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From page 43... ...
Health Division; Julia Gunn; Philip Newton, policy advisor for biological preparedness, Homeland Defense Integration and Defense Support of Civil Authorities, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Department of Defense (DoD) ; Roger Pollok; Al Romanosky; Wendy Smith; Sandy Wedgeworth, coordinator for public health emergency management at the City of Long 43
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From page 44... ...
The working group provides critical input to the BioWatch program and is a crucial component of the program's efforts to protect the nation from bioterrorism. At the state and local levels, collaborative partners include public health officials, epidemiologists, veterinarians, law enforcement and intelligence, laboratory staff, and other officials who are members of the local BioWatch advisory committees.
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From page 45... ...
Guidance documents include an overview of the BioWatch program as well as a list of the program's federal partners, their roles in supporting BioWatch, how they are connected, and how they can provide assistance and resources to state and local partners. There are also specific guidance documents for outdoor programs, indoor programs, special events, and environmental assessment.
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From page 46... ...
At one quarterly conference call, local public information officers spoke about how they were preparing for the two national political conventions. After the Super Bowl, the public information officers in the Bay Area spoke about what occurred during that time, how they responded, and what their communication practices were.
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From page 47... ...
These limited drills can involve triggering a national conference call or a technical laboratory conference call, for example. In addition, said Gabriel, some jurisdictions conduct training exercises on their own using federal emergency planning grants.
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From page 48... ...
She noted that, historically, the local jurisdictions prepare their own after-action reports following a real-world BAR, but starting in 2015, when the program had its first BAR in 18 months, the national program office started preparing its own after-action report focusing on how it participated in the response and how it could improve its operations. For events such as the Super Bowl and National Special Security Events, including political conventions and the presidential inauguration, the BioWatch program office has guidance it prepared with CDC, EPA, and FBI and tries to foster collaboration among the host cities and the jurisdictions that have experienced those events.
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From page 49... ...
In fact, she added, BioWatch has conducted a training exercise that focused exclusively on the veterinary response to a BAR and gained valuable lessons on how to better coordinate the flow of information between veterinarians and BioWatch. As far as food safety issues are concerned, Walter said those are beyond the BioWatch program's specifications.
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From page 50... ...
Gabriel added that she had not considered that the jurisdictions might find improvement plans useful for getting federal emergency planning grants or securing additional funding for their programs.
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From page 51... ...
Gabriel replied that the local BioWatch advisory committee chair serves as the contact point for the national program office with support from the jurisdictional coordinator. She noted that the structure of the advisory committee varies across jurisdictions, but it is the advisory committee chair who determines how coordination and communication take place.
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From page 52... ...
In fact, a memorandum of understanding enables USNORTHCOM to participate in BioWatch national conference calls, webinars, and other information-sharing activities and to access the BioWatch portal and toolbox. Wireman said the BioWatch staff has always been upfront about what BioWatch can and cannot do technologically, and the program has been direct in letting USNORTHCOM know who is managing each jurisdiction's BioWatch system and when they are performing exercises.
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From page 53... ...
"Base commanders want to be part of their communities, so having interest come to us would be fantastic," said Newton. "I cannot tell you how important that would be." Kathy Forzley, who has been involved with BioWatch for 8 years and is the current BioWatch advisory committee chair for the four jurisdictions in the Detroit metropolitan area, said the advisory committee chair rotates among the health officers of these four jurisdictions to ensure that everyone stays fully integrated in the program and that there is always experience among the committee members.
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From page 54... ...
She suggested that holding a conference call with the OHA veterinary working group and the veterinarians in her area could help with that task. Roger Pollok, who serves as the BioWatch advisory committee chair for the San Antonio area, said that BioWatch is one of the cornerstones of his jurisdiction's planning and response enterprise for any type of regional public health emergency.
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From page 55... ...
She noted that Long Beach has been using a federal emergency planning grant to support BioWatch in the absence of local funding, and that both the police and fire departments have absorbed the costs of their staff participation in trainings and other BioWatch activities. In fact, both departments will take an entire unit offline to participate in an 8-hour field exercise.
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From page 56... ...
In fact, the reason why the BioWatch laboratory is at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is that the previous public health officer was not interested in the program. Today, however, the new public health officer is fully engaged in the program and has worked to expand the BioWatch advisory committee.
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From page 57... ...
He wanted to know what was different about BioWatch that led not only to enduring coordination around BioWatch, but extended to other aspects of the panelists' public health missions. Forzley replied that four Detroit area jurisdictions are represented on her BioWatch advisory committee, and BioWatch forced them to work together to write an emergency preparedness plan.
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From page 58... ...
Romanosky commented that at the time BioWatch was first deployed public health emergency preparedness was in its infancy and revolved mainly around planning for pandemic influenza. "BioWatch was one of the factors that helped push the evolution of public health from the traditional disease surveillance paradigm to one that is more of a technology-based and forward-thinking-based paradigm of practice," said Romanosky.
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From page 59... ...
Forzley said that the four medical directors and health officers on her BioWatch advisory committee are not funded by the federal emergency preparedness grant, but cutting staff who are funded by that grant is a real possibility for her program. "As that funding is cut we will be forced to pull them out of BioWatch because we have mandates and work plans that we have to adhere to for whatever is left in our grant dollars, and that is something we're currently quite worried about," said Forzley.
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From page 60... ...
Communication Fluty asked Wedgeworth to describe the process her BioWatch advisory committee uses to communicate with her team in the event of a BAR in her community. After reiterating that the Long Beach advisory committee is distinct from the Los Angeles advisory committee, she explained that the two committees have regular quarterly meetings to coordinate plans and training exercises.
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From page 61... ...
BIOWATCH COLLABORATIVE PLANNING 61 on lessons learned from coordinating activities. In Boston, said Gunn, crossjurisdictional communication takes on a different meaning because people fly into Boston to receive specialty medical care from places all over the world.
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