Abstracts are no longer being accepted for the 2010 Public Health Preparedness Summit. Speakers will be notified by Nov. 6, 2009.

Welcome to the session abstract submission process for the 2010 Public Health Preparedness Summit, "Partners in Preparedness: Engaging a Community for a Successful Public Health Response." Please review the following information in its entirety as it contains important information and deadlines regarding your abstract submission. Abstract submissions are due no later than August 31, 2009 at Noon E.D.T.

How to Submit an Abstract

The 2010 Public Health Preparedness Summit abstract submission is an online process. You will be required to create an account login to submit an abstract. Once logged in, you will complete the online form that is separated into 3 pages (Steps). As you complete each page, please hit the Submit button at the bottom of each page to proceed to the next Step. Please note that the application includes a number of required fields. All required fields are indicated in BOLD type. Failure to complete your application or any of the required fields will result in elimination from the overall review and selection process.

Who Should Submit an Abstract?

This year’s Summit Planning Committee invites public health, emergency management, and other professionals across the country to showcase and share their best practice training models, tools, or other resources that advance the field of public health preparedness. The committee is especially interested in receiving models and tools that show proven results in building and sustaining public health preparedness at the local, state, tribal, or national level.

Priority Areas

Priority may be given to those submissions that focus on one or more of the following 13 national public health preparedness priority areas:

• Improve Public Health Workforce Preparedness: This priority may include workforce training and development activities; the development and delivery of an integrated, competency-based preparedness and response training program tailored to the public health workforce; and using such tools as in-person-training and advanced information and interactive distance learning technologies.

• Test and Assess All-Hazards Preparedness and Response Capacity of the Local Health Department and Relevant Response Partners through Events and Exercises: This priority includes response to real events and the development of exercise scenarios and exercise design criteria meeting the training needs of the public health workforce and of relevant response partners.

• Strengthen Communications and Information Sharing: This priority may include activities designed to strengthen inter- and intra-agency communication; information sharing with the public; and ways to improve interoperable communications and the timeliness and accuracy of communications regarding threats to the public’s health.

• Strengthening Partnership Building and Collaboration Capacities and Capabilities: This priority may include strategies for establishing, maintaining, and expanding partnerships and collaboration with all relevant stakeholders.

• Improve Biosurveillance and Disease Detection and Investigation: This priority area includes strategies for strengthening biosurveillance and disease detection and investigation capacities and capabilities.

• Improve Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) Preparedness Capacities and Capabilities: This priority area includes strategies for strengthening chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive detection, response, and decontamination capacities and capabilities and strategies for increasing the use and development of interventions known to prevent human illness from chemical, biological, and radiological agents.

• Improve Stockpiling, Distributing, and Dispensing of Mass Medical Countermeasures: This priority area includes plans and strategies for improving mass medical countermeasure stockpiling, distribution, and dispensing.

• Improving Medical Surge Capacity and Capability: This priority area includes strategies for enhancing and optimizing medical surge capacity during a public health emergency; identifying and establishing mass casualty care strategies, procedures, and practices; and strategies to help enhance ability to respond to an increase in demand or a decrease in supply.

• Strengthening Outreach to Vulnerable Populations: This priority encompasses strategies for providing specific support and care to vulnerable populations during a variety of events. It can include establishing specific resources, methods, and tactics to assist populations that may not be able to access or use traditional disaster preparedness planning resources; establishing measures and criteria to evaluate public health system capacity and readiness to addressvulnerable populations’ needs; risk communication strategies tailored to vulnerable populations; and strategies for sheltering, evacuation and/or distributing medical countermeasures to vulnerable populations during a public health emergency.

• Enhancing Mass Fatality Management: This priority area may include strategies addressing the development of local, multi-jurisdictional, and/or regional guidelines for mass fatality management-related to a natural or man-made disaster and guidance on recovery, handling, and disposition of human remains as well as on infection and other health and safety threats during a mass fatality event.

• Addressing Public Health Legal Authorities and Liability: This priority area includes strategies to improve the understanding of the range of haz­ards for which public health departments should be legally prepared for during a public health emergency. This may include adoption of altered standards of care—such as field triage protocols, modular emergency medical systems, etc.—following a mass casualty event and worker liability and risk management.

• Strengthening Public Health Critical Infrastructure Protection: This priority may include strategies for identifying both physical and cyber-based systems, for assessing and addressing public health critical infrastructure vulnerabilities.

• Strengthening Disaster Behavioral Health: This priority may include strategies for how to address the psychological challenges that communities may face during public health emergencies and training responders and others to address these challenges.

Session Categories

• Posters: This format will be used to display innovative practices, award winning programs, share documents, exchange ideas, and ask questions. Posters will be displayed during the opening hours of the Exhibit Hall and during an evening reception at which poster presenters will be asked to be available to answer questions about the material displayed.

• Sharing Sessions: These sessions are 45-minutes in length and are designed to be informal, interactive, or question and answer sessions on a specific topic or issue. They may include feedback on programmatic ideas or devoted to developing action agendas or policy statements. These sessions will not include the option of using PowerPoint presentations or other more formal presentation modalities.

• Interactive Sessions: These sessions are 90-minutes in length and are designed to be interactive, produce identifiable outcomes, and focus on engaging participants. These sessions are limited to a maximum of three speakers.

• Workshops: These 2-hour sessions are designed to be interactive, produce identifiable outcomes (i.e., enhance knowledge, build skills, shape attitudes/beliefs), and focus on encouraging development or change in public health practice or policy.

Submission Review Process

Session Submission Forms are due no later than August 31, 2009 at Noon E.D.T. Summit Planning Committee members will review all applications and notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent to the Session Contact Person by 5:00 pm E.D.T. on November 6, 2009.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Planning Committee Chair, Jack Herrmann at (202) 507-4228 or by e-mail at jherrmann@naccho.org.