Advancing Public Health and Medical Preparedness with Operations Research

Eva K. Lee (), Ferdinand Pietz (), Bernard Benecke (), Jacquelyn Mason () and Greg Burel ()
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Eva K. Lee: Center for Operations Research in Medicine and HealthCare, NSF I/UCRC Center for Health Organization Transformation, School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332
Ferdinand Pietz: Strategic National Stockpile, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30322
Bernard Benecke: Global Disease Detection and Emergency Response, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Jacquelyn Mason: National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30322
Greg Burel: Strategic National Stockpile, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30322

Interfaces, 2013, vol. 43, issue 1, 79-98

Abstract: Planning for a catastrophe involving a disease outbreak with the potential for mass casualties is a significant challenge for emergency managers. Public health experts at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) teamed with operations researchers to address important aspects of mass dispensing: medical supply distribution, locations of dispensing facilities, optimal facility staffing and resource allocation, routing of the population, and dispensing methods. Simulation-optimization technology was integrated into a decision support and data management suite, RealOpt©, for tactical and strategic operational planning. RealOpt has enabled the CDC to provide modern tools that support dynamic planning for emergencies and that establish a knowledge data bank to provide feedback about the deployment of various techniques. The RealOpt suite now has a US user base of over 6,500 public health and emergency directors covering all states, plus many international users. RealOpt has been applied in hundreds of drills and dispensing events, including anthrax preparedness, and for seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccination events.

Keywords: public health emergency preparedness; national health security; optimization; simulation; mass dispensing; decision support (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orinte:v:43:y:2013:i:1:p:79-98

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