This High-Tech Solution to Disaster Response May Be Too Good to Be True
Major cities are turning to a Silicon Valley start-up to help save lives in an emergency. But some fear its promise has been dangerously exaggerated.
Opinion: A liability problem could delay supply of emergency respirators
Imagine an Ebola epidemic is ravaging a community, or a dirty bomb goes off in a major city — but health workers can’t enter the affected area because they lack adequate respiratory protective devices (respirators) meant to protect them from…
CYBER ALERT – BlueKeep Exploit Affecting Medical Devices
A newly identified exploit, known as BlueKeep, is being used by unauthorized actors to gain system level access to healthcare networks via unprotected medical devices. This exploit is similar to the Eternal Blue exploit used to spread the ransomware, WannaCry,…
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School Of Public Health’s Center For Health Security Releases 2018 Annual Report
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Health Security released its 2018 annual report. The report details the center’s efforts to enhance research and analysis on major domestic and international health security issues, including emerging infectious diseases and…
HHS Has Released 2019-2022 U.S. Health Security Strategy
Late last week, The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services released its 2019-2022 National Health Security Strategy, which “provides a vision for strengthening [the] nation’s ability to prevent, detect, assess, prepare for, mitigate, respond to, and recover from 21st…
Upcoming Training: Emergency Risk Communication in Practice for Health Professionals
The Local Public Health Institute of Massachusetts will offer a free risk communication training in western MA in February 2019 at no cost to attendees. This course is geared towards the following audiences: Health professionals EMTs/Paramedics Health Facility Administrators Physicians…
2018 Updated Public Health Preparedness Capabilities Released
In 2011, CDC established 15 capabilities that serve as national standards for public health preparedness planning. Since then, these capability standards have served as a vital framework for state, local, tribal, and territorial preparedness programs as they plan, operationalize, and…
Senators Blast Nursing Home Operators, CMS Over Emergency Prep Rules
Members of a Senate committee on Friday released a critical report on emergency preparedness in the nation’s nursing homes, accusing both operators and the federal government of failing residents during storms and other disasters. Compiled by the Democratic members of…
October 2018 Full Coalition Meeting
Our fall 2018 Full Coalition meeting drew together western MA healthcare and public health stakeholders to offer disciplinary and HMCC-level updates, and partake of a program focusing on models of community paramedicine and mobile integrated health. For that main program,…
Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense Releases Updated Federal Policy Recommendations
Earlier this month, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense released an updated report, "Holding the Line on Biodefense: State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Reinforcements Needed", which highlights several recommendations for how federal policy can help to render state, local,…