Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced new investments that will help strengthen the nation's public health workforce and fight disease and illness.
"The new name reflects the passion and energy of the Company and management team, and highlights our expanded presence in the clinical diagnostics market. We have established strong momentum in the diagnostics marketplace and the new branding under BioFire Diagnostics better reflects the markets we serve," said Kirk Ririe, Chief Executive Officer of BioFire Diagnostics.
Preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters as well as everyday events are important steps in the process of emergency management. Resilience as an important component of emergency management is a fairly new concept, but successful resilience depends on leaders who can modify that concept to fit their own organizations' needs to effectively reduce future response and recovery times.
"Everybody who goes to war gets shot," one soldier says. "Some in the body. Some in the head. Some in the heart." The National Center for Veterans Analysis and Statistics (NCVAS) estimates that, as of 30 September 2011, the nation's veteran population is more than 22.2 million. Although the journey home for each soldier, airman, and medical caregiver is different, "Centerline" depicts the individual, yet common, story of many of them.
For the sixth consecutive year, ESi Acquisition, Inc. (ESi®), the global leader in emergency information management solutions, has been named to the Inc. magazine list of America's fastest-growing private companies. ESi pioneered the concept of the "virtual" emergency operations center with WebEOC®, the world's first Internet-enabled crisis information management software.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced the next steps in the Obama administration's work to help doctors and hospitals use electronic health records.
First Line Technology applied for this prestigious award, which is based on percentage growth over the course of the past three years, in March and is proud to say that the company's successful growth is only expected to continue. Being named to the Inc. 500|5000 list is an honor that First Line and all of its employees are excited to accept.
President Barrack Obama issued an important and far-reaching directive last year to help "guide activities that will enable the nation to achieve the [national preparedness] goal." As agencies across the nation strive to meet that goal, new ways of building community resilience continue to emerge. By gathering and analyzing the wealth of information that individual citizens already possess, U.S. law-enforcement agencies are finding new ways to upgrade community resilience.
There is no room for error during a radiological event. For that reason, information must be readily available and as accurate as possible. Listen to subject matter experts from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as they discuss the types of resources available and how communities are working together to provide the best programs for dealing with radiological hazards.
Smoke thickened, black ash fell from the sky, and fire sirens wailed as residents fled for their lives - or tried to get back to their homes. They were all in a life-or-death race against Australia's "Black Saturday" bushfires, which devastated huge areas of Victoria. Numerous lives were lost, thousands of citizens were displaced, and the entire nation realized that previous recovery and rebuilding plans were inadequate.
"Being prepared is the best defense against disaster," said Scott C. Somers, PhD, a member of the American Red Cross (ARC) Scientific Advisory Council and its Preparedness Sub-Council. "These emergencies can affect one family or an entire community. By taking responsibility for our own preparedness, we each help contribute to the resilience of our community."
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced awards of $48.8 million to bolster epidemiology, laboratory, and health information systems in health departments. These awards represent the third year of funding made possible by the Affordable Care Act Prevention and Public Health Fund for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases Cooperative Agreements.
Delta Scientific has announced that twenty-six, 16-foot Delta MP5000 mobile deployable vehicle crash barriers will be used by the Secret Service at both the upcoming Republican and Democratic national political conventions.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it has approved the 2012-2013 influenza (flu) vaccine formulation for all six manufacturers licensed to produce and distribute the vaccines in the United States.
The Company Mass Casualty Decontamination System (MCD) is the newest decontamination system offered to DRASH customers. The MCD encompasses a Deployable Rapid Assembly Shelter (DRASH), integrated water pumps and flow control, a self-controlled water heater with automatic solution injection, containment berms and wastewater storage bladders.
Washington Nationals' owner Mark Lerner recently told The Washington Times that his team "would love to host a future All-Star Game." That honor, though, would require extensive preparations to ensure the safety and security of people in and around the nation's capital. Fortunately, the Federal Highway Administration has many useful plans and programs available to assist with such preparations.
MSA has announced the industry-first CO/NO2 XCell Sensor for ALTAIR 4X Multigas Detector, which is ideal for monitoring diesel emissions. The Sensor's fast response time allows users to bump test in less than 10 seconds and perform full span calibration in 60 seconds.
Situational awareness and information sharing are key factors in the guidelines recommended for mitigating terrorist threats. By developing the standards and policies needed to train all employees to recognize and report suspicious activity - and regularly reassessing such training - mass transit agencies can build a strong front line of defense and reduce current vulnerabilities.
The Department of Homeland Security has announced the official launch of its redesigned website, which offers a simplified and unified approach to DHS.gov's content, creating a more consistent look and feel throughout the site, and streamlining access to DHS services and information.
"We are increasing the likelihood of an above-normal season because storm-conducive wind patterns and warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures are now in place in the Atlantic," said Gerry Bell, Ph.D., lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at the Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
"We field tested several laptops in some of our fire trucks to see what would work best for us," stated Steve Huffman, Public Information Officer City of Mobile Fire-Rescue. "The Durabook D14RM was able to take the punishment of being in a fire truck and outlasted any of the others we tested. You might say it was firefighter tested, because we can be pretty rough on our equipment."
Rave Mobile Safety, developer of Smart911, the trusted database of critical data on 9-1-1 callers, has announced the launch of its SmartPrepare solution for emergency management. SmartPrepare enhances whole community preparedness by providing emergency managers with actionable information on the needs of individuals in a community in order to help mitigate the effects of, prepare for, and respond to disasters and other emergency incidents.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has announced the publication of a notice of proposed rulemaking which would extend the border zone up to 55 miles, from the current 25 mile restriction, for Border Crossing Card (BCC) holders in the state of New Mexico. This proposed change would allow BCC holders to travel to the towns of Deming and Las Cruces, N.M., stimulating commerce, trade, and tourism activity in the area.
The WebEOC®-based CMS will support emergency management processes and functions, and provide a common operating picture with comprehensive situational awareness for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its federal, state, local, and tribal strategic partners.
Having choices opens many opportunities for patients and responders as well as medical staff within the U.S. healthcare system. However, that benefit has led to complications in communications and the sharing of information. Healthcare coalitions are seeking better ways to meet daily operational goals while at the same time expanding the capabilities available to cope with emergency surges and mass-casualty incidents.
Representatives of a Business Operations Center (BOC) ensure that the public sector obtains the resources needed during a disaster. In addition, the BOC offers private-sector volunteers an opportunity to play a critical role in disaster response while at the same time helping to reduce lost business revenue and building resiliency for their own companies and organizations.
Kirk Ririe, Chief Executive Officer of Idaho Technology, said that, "We are pleased to report these encouraging findings, which demonstrate the broad applicability of our FilmArray rapid diagnostic platform. We recently initiated clinical trials for our blood culture ID (BCID) panel and expect to launch the clinical evaluation for our gastrointestinal (GI) panel in the first quarter of next year. Pending regulatory clearance, we expect the BCID panel to be available commercially in the United States and Europe in the first half of 2013, and the GI panel to follow early in 2014."
FLIR Systems Inc. and the Cayman Chemical Company have joined forces to provide law enforcement agencies with a powerful new tool in the battle against designer drugs by using Cayman Chemical's forensic standards to create a Mass Spectral Library for FLIR's Griffin 460 transportable Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) system.
To help improve the health outcomes of patients who require emergency care, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has created a new Office of Emergency Care Research (OECR) to serve as a focal point for basic, clinical, and translational emergency care research and training across NIH.
The Elite is the next generation of Smiths Detection's HazMatID, the most widely used field-portable Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) solid and liquid identifier. One tenth the size, and only one fourth the weight of the original, it uses innovative sampling techniques for the reliable determination of suspicious powders and can also be used for direct surface contaminant analyses and robotics integration.
Scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) - joined by scientists from other federal agencies - have developed this guideline, which provides a common framework to carry out microbial risk assessments (MRAs). It also lays out a flexible set of approaches, methods, and tools recommended for use to carry out microbial risk assessments, provide greater transparency to the process, and improve results.
The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), working in partnership with the DHS Office of Health Affairs (OHA) and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), has developed an innovative online educational outreach program and focused website for the physician medical directors of local departments and agencies who are involved in emergency medical services (EMS) responses.
In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, reporters show images of communities that are faced with destruction and a need to rebuild. However, there is often an even greater devastation with even harder pieces to pick up - the mental and physical health effects. Both types of recovery are required and both should be included in a community's resilience framework.
Although there is no universally accepted definition of the term "Resilience," there is no doubt that planners and responders throughout the world are working to achieve it. The residents of Greenburg, Kansas, are a typical example. After the city was hit in 2007 with an EF5 tornado broader in scope than the city itself, its response was to come back stronger, and more resilient, than ever before.
The allocation of the 700 MHz D Block network for the public safety sector means that many jurisdictions are now faced with important purchasing decisions - as well as decisions about their existing communications systems. Regardless of the type of equipment, brand, or price, the resilience of operations must be a key factor in the decision-making process.
