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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2017 Mar 23;11(5):552–561. doi: 10.1017/dmp.2016.198

TABLE 6.

Priority Research Questions, by Domaina

Information Management
  1. Is social media an effective platform for communicating with the public during emergencies (eg, about available resources and for maintaining situational awareness)?

  2. What are the most effective message formats for information sharing (eg, public information, alerts, warning, notifications, etc) for functional and access needs populations, including populations that rely on oral traditions, limited English proficiency populations, and individuals without Internet access or smart phones?

  3. What are best practices and barriers for using information-sharing systems to share data between and among states and localities, to share information about functional and access needs populations, and to address HIPAA privacy, disclosures, and confidentiality?

  4. Are information sharing systems effective for handling surge-related needs (eg, surges of information, resources, and/or patients)?

  5. What are best practices for translating and disseminating emergency risk communication principles used by public health departments to ensure knowledge and use across the public health system?

  6. What are the most effective resources and tools (eg, data collection templates, methods for summarizing and sharing information, and/or data systems) that can be tailored to capture critical information during different types of emergency events?

Surge Management
  1. What are best practices and infrastructure needs for addressing mental health issues and needs during emergencies?

  2. What are the appropriate metrics for assessing medical surge activities and operations, including services, management processes, and standards of care?

  3. What are the most effective strategies for ensuring preparedness and medical surge capacity in rural, isolated, or health professional shortage areas?

  4. What are the most effective and appropriate roles for public health departments in medical surge activities and operations, considering the varying capabilities, resources, knowledge, and skills that exist within public health departments?

  5. What are best practices for public health departments, hospitals, and health care facilities to ensure readiness to activate and support surge activities and operations and to continue to provide services in the short and long term after an incident, especially related to: surge activities and operations; public health agencies’ roles in supporting health care facility and hospital readiness; coordinating delivery of resources (eg, medical materiel or pharmaceuticals) during a crisis; staffing; medical countermeasure distribution; and patient surge?

  6. What are the most effective strategies or systems (eg, regional planning, standards of care, and/or coalitions) for facilitating collaboration and communication across agencies that support medical surge and mass care operations and activities?

  7. What are best practices for health care coalitions for medical surge?

Biosurveillance
  1. What are the most effective practices, procedures, and strategies for isolation and quarantine and infection control?

  2. What are the most effective processes and protocols for interjurisdictional (eg, across states, localities) epidemiological investigation during an emergency event?

  3. What are the most effective data sharing and data use practices for public health surveillance to ensure privacy, confidentiality, and security of personal health information?

  4. What are the most effective communication and information sharing methods for epidemiological response among public health and external partners (eg, health care, law enforcement, forensic epidemiology, first responders, and emergency management)?

  5. Are syndromic surveillance systems effective and timely for detecting public health threats, triggering emergency response, and conveying information/data with other public health entities?

  6. What are the most effective surveillance systems for supporting surge epidemiological investigation and for supporting community situational awareness during a response?

Countermeasures and Mitigation
  1. What are the most effective strategies for medical countermeasure apportionment and collaboration to manage dispensing points and to optimize speed and coverage of dispensing to the identified populations?

  2. What are the most effective methods and strategies for dispensing medication (eg, mailboxes, closed, open, or pharmacist points of dispensing) to the targeted population?

  3. What is the optimal mix of dispensing modalities (eg, closed versus open points of dispensing) for medical countermeasures dispensing?

  4. What are best practices for understanding the health issues (eg, safety and mental health) of responders, including health department staff and others, both prior to and following incident response?

Community Resilience
  1. What are the most effective strategies for engaging, educating, training, and motivating communities to prepare for, withstand, and recover from public health incidents and emergency events?

  2. How effective are simulation and modeling for informing community preparedness and recovery from public health incidents?

  3. How effective is jurisdictional risk assessment-based planning for mitigating the impact of identified risks in the community related to public health, services, and infrastructure?

  4. What are the most effective strategies for engaging functional and access needs populations in community preparedness activities and improving their ability to prevent, mitigate, respond to, and recover from events?

  5. What are the most effective methods for locating/mapping locations of functional and access needs populations before, during, and after an emergency event (eg, Geospatial Informational Systems [GIS] mapping, other technology)?

  6. How can various types of data (eg, historical, geological, ecological, and sociological data) be used to inform jurisdictional risk assessments, and what is the feasibility of compiling these data centrally?

Incident Management
  1. What are best practices for training and exercising staff and first responders to contribute to the emergency response and emergency operations communications when their usual role is not emergency preparedness?

  2. What are the most effective elements to successful Continuity of Operations (COOP) implementation for health departments?

  3. What is the effect of reduced federal and community funding, staffing, and resources on existing infrastructure (eg, protocols, guidelines, and plans) and communication systems for emergency operations planning and implementation?

  4. What are the most effective strategies for ensuring the EOC is not overwhelmed, continues to identify important information during an emergency event, and has incorporated appropriate levels of redundancy into its planning and operations?

  5. What are the most effective strategies for eliminating cross-jurisdictional (eg, across states, localities) barriers to mutual aid to ensure the EOC is fully staffed over multiple operational periods and when the local system is overwhelmed?

  6. How effective are web-based command and control platforms (ie, WebEOC), protocols, and trainings for EOC operations?

  7. What are the most effective EOC communication methods (both within the EOC and between the EOC and the public) during a response?

  8. What are the most effective approaches for public health departments to coordinate with other entities both within and outside of the EOC (eg, locally and regionally, with state and local agencies, with health care and health care systems, etc)?

  9. What are best practices for building capacity to ensure a fully staffed, working information management system during a surge?

Cross-Cutting Topics
  1. What is the relationship between the availability of federal, state, and local resources (eg, funding, staffing, and equipment) and state and local public health preparedness and response?

  2. How can specific disease support and expertise (eg, pediatric, bariatric, and chronic disease) be applied to medical support, sheltering, and evacuation activities?

  3. What are best practices for managing public risk perception during an emergency event?

  4. What are best practices for integrating preparedness activities and operations into routine public health and health care practice?

  5. What is the relationship between leadership variables (eg, experience, background, and training) of PHEP directors, incident commanders, and Incident Command System (ICS) leaders, and the response system’s performance and sustainability?

  6. What is the comparative effectiveness and productivity of different funding streams, and how can funding sources with similar grant deliverables be integrated (eg, Homeland Security and PHEP JRAs, HPP HCCDA Factors and healthcare community assessments, Joint Commission and CMS requirements, etc)?

a

Abbreviations: CMS, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; EOC, emergency operations center; HCCDA, Healthcare Coalition Developmental Assessment; HPP, Hospital Preparedness Program; JRA, jurisdictional risk assessment; PHEP, Public Health Emergency Preparedness.