Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #102414

Leah Z. Ziskin, MD, MS¹, Eddy A. Bresnitz, MD, MS², Glenn Paulson, PhD³, Emily Catharine Perry, MPH¹, and Drew A. Harris, DPM, MPH¹. (1) New Jersey Center for Public Health Preparedness, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, School of Public Health, 335 George Street, Liberty Plaza, Room3712, PO Box 2688, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, 732-235-9703, perryem@umdnj.edu, (2) Division of Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health, New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, PO Box 369, Trenton, NJ 08625, (3) Associate Dean for Research, UMDNJ School of Public Health, PO Box 2688 Room 3710 Liberty Plaza, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-2688

In September 2004, a special supplement to New Jersey Medicine, the journal of the Medical Society of New Jersey, titled “Public Health Emergencies: Terrorism Preparedness” was released. The content of the publication included peer reviewed articles on legal issues, public policy, epidemiology, chemical terrorism, surveillance, the public health laboratory, radiological terrorism, nuclear power plant emergencies, mental health and education and training of the public health work force. After reading the supplement the reader should be able to: articulate how planning can mitigate the effects of a public health emergency including acts of terrorism; discuss the sources of reporting that are relied upon for surveillance of communicable disease and the federal systems of surveillance that have been established; and describe how acts of terrorism can have long-term effects upon individuals and communities. Funding for the supplement originated from the CDC Preparedness Grant to the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services and a memorandum of agreement with The NJ Center for Public Health Preparedness at UMDNJ. As an incentive for physicians to acquire knowledge about terrorism preparedness, Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits were provided by a HRSA grant from the New Jersey Preparedness Training Consortium at UMDNJ-NJ Medical School. The supplement represented a unique collaboration among a state medical society, a state health department, and medical and public health academic institutions.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the components necessary to prepare the public health workforce for an emergency, including an act of terrorism.
• Describe the process needed to produce a publication for educating the public health workforce on public health emergencies.
• Assess the value of awarding continuing education credits for a publication on public health emergencies.

Keywords: Bioterrorism, Public Health Policy

Related Web page: www.njcphp.org/index.html

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.