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Analytic Services Contributes to “A Decade of Biosecurity” for the March issue of Biosecurity and Bioterrorism

Arlington, VA – Analytic Services Inc. Corporate Fellow, Dr. Elin Gursky, M.Sc., Sc.D., and Analyst Gregory Bice recently contributed to the March issue of Biosecurity and Bioterrorism’s 10-year special retrospective issue; A Decade in Biosecurity. This special issue from the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC documents specific key achievements associated with the past decade as the Nation struggled with the September 11^th and anthrax attacks while suggesting strategies that address future deliberate and natural threats. The seven article compendium included the Center’s Director Dr. Tom Inglesby and Distinguished Scholar Dr. D.A. Henderson along with the following experts: Stephen Morse, Ph.D., of Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health; James G. Hodge, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health; and former Secretary of the Navy and Chairman of the Center for New American Security Richard Danzig. Dr. Gursky and Mr. Bice supplied a pointed piece titled, Assessing a Decade of Public Health Preparedness: Progress on the Precipice?

Specifically, the article chronicles the re-shaping of public health sector activities following the 2001 anthrax attacks and efforts to build biodefense capabilities that have included investments in the areas of electronic health information networks; systems of laboratories to support early pathogen detection; the development of a Strategic National Stockpile; strategies to swiftly dispense medical countermeasures; and increased interagency and multi-sector collaboration.  Furthermore, Dr. Gursky and Mr. Bice point to the challenges and organizational complexities faced by public health practitioners in balancing traditional public health activities with new preparedness responsibilities. These challenges are compounded by the rapid decline of state and local preparedness capacity resulting from austere budgetary conditions.

For more information on how Analytic Services can assist your organization with emergency preparedness/response and other public health solutions, please contact us.

About Analytic Services Inc.

Analytic Services is a not-for-profit public service institute dedicated to informing decisions that shape the Nation’s future. We provide objective studies and analyses for issues concerning national and homeland security, and to select public policy communities. Capabilities are delivered through our ANSER operating unit, the Applied Systems Thinking (ASysT) Institute, and the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute, a federally funded research and development center, operated on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security.