The Next Challenge in Health Care Preparedness
Catastrophic Health Events

Eric Toner, M.D.
Senior Associate, Center for Biosecurity
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC)

May 26, 2010


Contents:
Live Meeting Recording (WMV) This is a large file and requires Windows Media Player or Windows Media Components for QuickTime, or a similar product to view.
Transcript (HTML)
Transcript (MS Word)
Slides
Ratings
Reviews


Related Websites:
UPMC Center for Biosecurity Catastrophic Health Events Report Web page


RATINGS
26 Ratings Submitted
5 (19%) Academia 3 (12%)
13 (50%) Business 8 (31%)
6 (23%) Government 4 (15%)
2 (8%) Volunteers 0 (0%)
0 (0%) Other 11 (42%)

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REVIEWS

"Great information. Thanks."
Bill Lang
VCPI


"Dr. Toner is always an excellent speaker and I look forward to hearing from him. His topics are relevant to healthcare emergency preparedness and response, for which I am responsible."


"I had already read the report and it was nice to hear Dr. Toner present the material and respond to questions. Unfortunately time did not allow all of the areas I was interested in to be asked and answered."
Joel Palmer
FEMA


"Thank you. This is very useful."
James Jordan
NAMI PA


"Very timely topic and excellent discussion. Thanks!"


"Thank you Amy for another great offering and thanks to our speaker for a great job well done."
Lloyd Bokman


"Thank you for the presentation. It was an interesting overview of healthcare preparedness and leads me to want to learn more about where to go from here and strategies that can be implemented to push forward further improvements."
Corey McKenna
Emergency Management Magazine


"This presentation summarized the main points of the report and it gave us a broad view of the information gathered in the report"
Maria Bull
UCF


"Excellent content. I appreciated the material and think it is very useful moving forward in planning."
Jody Moore
Moses Cone Health System


"Excellent review of critically important material. Dr Toner's thoughtful responses to questions were, as always, helpful. The work of his group is extremely important to national preparedness, if indeed those that commissioned listened."
Steve Pixley


"Excellent program amd report. The brief discussion of the three courses of action and the realistic assessment of our current state of readiness are indeed a clarion call for us to continue to improve horizontal and vertical interactions. I would be interested if in a future forum we could get a response from the mental health community on it's response status and plans in the event of a CHE."
Bruce K. Bickel
Applied Training Solutions, LLC


"Good overview of current situation and needs. Little actual detail on how preparedness could be improved and what actual current planning basis is for a catastrophic health event. For example, what how would 1000 tramatic burn patients be handled in any major metropolitan area or SMSA? Still useful discussion and clearly health is major deficiency in US preparedness and resilience because neither adequte public or private funding of surge capability (even though open beds are some insurance) or logistics."
William Cumming
The Vacation Lane Group, Inc.


"Extemely useful information re: literature reviewed that was used to frame the report's recommendations re: establishment of coalitions, regional exchanges of information among health care providers, transportation coalitions and providors. Establishing a "national framework" for achieving same, I agree, can be achieved in the short-term, (e.g., getting these providors to talk to each other) and establishing a forum for exchanging information and addressing issues. Long term solutions require commitments of 'dedicated funding.' In today's economic crisis, I cannot envision that happening until well into the next decade."
Shirley
DHS


"Nice discussion on the report."
Judy Shuck
Hampton Roads MMRS



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ERIC TONER

Dr. Toner is a Senior Associate with the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). He is an internist and emergency physician. His primary areas of interest are healthcare preparedness for catastrophic events, pandemic influenza response, and medical response to bioterrorism. He is a Managing Editor of the Clinicians’ Biosecurity Network, an online network that sends clinical biosecurity reports to thousands of clinicians across the country and around the world. He is an Associate Editor of the journal Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science, the leading peer-reviewed journal in this field.

Dr. Toner has authored numerous articles on hospital and pandemic preparedness, and he has organized several meetings of national leaders on the topic of hospital preparedness for pandemic influenza and mass casualty disasters. He has spoken at numerous national and international conferences on a range of biosecurity topics and appeared on a number of high profile national television and news features on pandemic flu and bioterrorism preparedness. He was the principal investigator of a multi-year project to evaluate the achievements of the HHS Hospital Preparedness Program and related programs and to propose a vision and strategy for healthcare preparedness for the future. He is also leading a project for HHS to improve healthcare situational awareness. Dr. Toner is a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Catastrophic Events.

Dr. Toner has been involved in hospital disaster planning since the mid-1980s. Prior to joining the Center, Dr. Toner was the Medical Director of Disaster Preparedness at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Maryland, where he practiced emergency medicine for 23 years. During this time, he also headed a large emergency medicine group practice, founded and directed one of the first Chest Pain Centers in Maryland, and co-founded and managed a large primary care group practice and an independent urgent care center. In 2003, he spearheaded the creation of a coalition of disaster preparedness personnel from the 5 Baltimore County hospitals, Health Department, and Office of Emergency Management.