Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, great strides have been made to share information across disciplines, but gaps still remain. Timely, actionable information is needed to effectively protect against and respond to future attacks. This report discusses a multi-discipline, "need-to-share" approach, which includes sharing information within and between communities.
Illegal drugs and their second- and third-order effects present what could arguably be the most dangerous and clear existential threat to the American people - more than any other horrific, catastrophic threat. With the ability to touch every citizen, reach every family, and affect every household, no one is completely immune, protected, insulated, or isolated from the effects of this scourge on society.
Can the lessons learned from Plan Colombia in the late 1990s be polished, refined, upgraded, and used again to help Mexico deal with its notorious - and notoriously successful - drug cartels, and either stop or at least slow down the current influx of illegal drugs from Mexico into the United States? The most optimistic answer at this time is a firm "Maybe." The difficulties are greater, the stakes are immensely higher, and there are numerous other complexities that must be taken into consideration.
Busy practitioners need information and want to receive it as quickly as possible. DomPrep meets these requirements with its new Mobile Edition of DomesticPreparedness.com. Easier access and faster connection speeds, with no login or password required, are just a few benefits for modern smartphone users.
Following is an official response, provided by the EPA Office of Information, to the preceding article by Michael Jacoby about some major deficiencies in the agency databases - which are used by numerous responder agencies at all levels of government throughout the nation.
"Reasonably close" and "ballpark estimates" are good enough for some aspects of modern life - but not for legal documents, many medical procedures, and almost all emergency responses, particularly when human lives are at stake. Specifically included in the latter category, unfortunately, are a number of "locational errors" in the EPA's Envirofacts website.
Government officials and everyday citizens agree that U.S. preparedness capabilities are immeasurably greater today than they were on 11 September 2001. The key word in that sentence, though, is "immeasurably," because there is still no consensus, particularly in the fields of healthcare and emergency management, on how to establish verifiable standards, quantify improvements, and identify the readiness gaps still remaining.
Regardless of specialty, the number one priority for all emergency preparedness professionals is to save lives. A victim's chance of survival decreases with delays in transport and incomplete records or medical history. This report focuses on patient tracking, new health IT infrastructures, challenges faced by the healthcare industry, and the vehicles and platforms necessary to form an effective data solution for the healthcare and emergency management industries.
The detection and identification capabilities of today's U.S. military and homeland-security units are still short of Starfleet status. But they are getting light years closer, thanks in large part to current and projected budget cutbacks that reward both versatility and creative thinking and punish those who do not see "the whole elephant."
The former DHS Secretary provides his own nonpartisan insights on the current state of U.S. emergency preparedness, comments on many areas of progress - and some gaps still to be filled - and offers a number of helpful short- and long-term recommendations for the future.
