The State of Washington and much of the Pacific Northwest are at high risk for earthquakes. Yet, much of our infrastructure, including our healthcare infrastructure, is insufficiently prepared for a major earthquake. CEER works with state and local partners, as well as colleagues from universities across the region, to better prepare health and public health systems for earthquakes.
Regional Coordination:
CEER leads and/or participates in a variety of state and regional activities to support public health and healthcare preparedness for major earthquakes. For example, Dr. Errett chairs the National Science Foundation’s Coastlines and People Cascadia Research Coordination Network, which is focused on integrating health practitioners and researchers into existing regional earthquake, tsunami and coastal hazard research activities. She is also the UW-based PI of a UW-UBC Collaborative Research Mobility Award to promote cross-border collaboration on Cascadia research with colleagues from the University of British Columbia. Dr. Errett also represents public health and social sciences on Washington’s Seismic Safety Committee.
Healthcare Decision Making:
Following earthquakes, healthcare organizations have to make important decisions about evacuation, closure, reentry, and reopening, with cascading impacts to community and regional healthcare access. Following the 2019 Searles Valley Earthquake, we conducted and analyzed key informant interviews with eight healthcare administrators and leaders to assess considerations made in decision making.
Healthcare Seismic Mitigation:
Mitigation practices can minimize hospital service disruption in the event of a disaster. Yet, absent formal requirements, it remains unknown how or why mitigation practices are implemented in hospitals worldwide. With colleagues in the Dominican Republic—a disaster hot spot— we are working to understand the factors associated with hospital implementation of mitigation practices, as outlined in the World Health Organization Safe Hospitals Framework.
Disaster Research Response Workshop:
The Disaster Research Response (DR2) Training Workshop will focus on the process for conducting research specific to Pacific Northwest (PNW) hazards. These include, for example, a Cascadia earthquake scenario, heat waves, and wildfire smoke events. Event participants will include local, state, and federal officials, as well as representatives from PNW Tribes, academia, the private sector, and community-based organizations.
Workshop Goal
- The goal of the DR2 Workshop is to build regional capacity for research response following disasters that occur within the PNW. This goal is organized around seven detailed objectives that includes, but is not limited to, exploring the integration of various perspectives in creating and implementing research plans following events aimed at reducing community health impacts during response and recovery, as well as a space for facilitating and fostering relationships and knowledge sharing among local, state, Tribal federal, academic, international, and community partners and stakeholders.
Key anticipated outcomes of the workshop include
- Identification of funding opportunities for disaster health research across federal agencies, private foundations, and other funding sources;
- Institutional Review Board guidance to efficiently review research protocols for timely data collection following disaster, and
- Creation of sustainable relationships and collaboration mechanisms to produce meaningful and applicable disaster response research
Workshop-Affiliated Activities
- There will also be a number of events and activities associated with the workshop, including:
- Community engagement throughout the PNW
- Development of research protocols
- Discussions with other NIEHS grantees on how to collaborate on disaster research response
- International collaborative workshops & meetings Hazard and health research briefs
Register for the March 17th event here.
Public Health Earthquake Reconnaissance Tool:
In collaboration with the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s Public Health Workgroup, chaired by Dr. Errett, CEER investigators are developing a tool to collect information about public health and healthcare impacts following a major earthquake. The tool is designed to be used by non-health scientists, including engineers, to collect standardized, preliminary information about public health and healthcare impacts following a major earthquake to inform the need for more in-depth investigations.
International Study Abroad Opportunities:
With colleagues from Tohoku University’s International Research Institute for Disaster Science and University of Washington School of Nursing, CEER is planning the Nursing/Public Health Japan: Health Impacts of the Great East Japan Earthquake Exploration Seminar in Tokyo and Sendai, Japan. This program has been rescheduled for Spring 2022. We are also in the early stages of planning a community resilience-focused spring break study abroad program with the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic for public health and engineering students, which we hope to offer for the first time in March 2023.