As demonstrated by this year's flu season, even a moderately higher than expected increase in seasonal flu cases can strain a health system. Should a pandemic event in the order of 1918 Spanish flu occur, the impacts on global health security could be catastrophic. Early detection, rapid mobilization of response, and enhanced coordination across a decentralized health system are necessary to reduce the health consequences associated with a pandemic, especially when impacting a health system with a limited surge capacity.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) recently completed a project that combined two JHU/APL-developed technologies for achieving real-time situational awareness during pandemic events. Dr. Jeff Freeman will discuss the project that simulated a pandemic flu event for the National Capital Region and modeled the overall effect on public health and medical assets.
This event is part of the Global Health Security Seminar Series, co-sponsored by Georgetown’s Center for Global Health Science and Security and the Global Health Initiative. Over the course of the 2017-2018 academic year, speakers in the series will address critical issues in global health in an effort to promote greater dialogue regarding pandemic preparedness across the university and the wider Washington, D.C., community.
Dr. Jeff Freeman has more than 10 years of field experience in disaster and humanitarian response. He recently joined the National Health Mission Area of JHU/APL as a senior scientist and assistant program manager for health surveillance, tasked with building a disaster response initiative for JHU/APL. In addition to JHU/APL, Dr. Freeman is a visiting scholar in the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, faculty in the Center for Humanitarian Health, and a member of the Johns Hopkins Go Team, which provides rapid response capacity for regional and national disasters.
