Direct Relief Staff Conduct GIS Mapping System Workshop at the 2010 Public Health Preparedness Summit
ATLANTA, GA (February 18, 2010) – Three staff members from Direct Relief International are leading a workshop today on how to effectively use geographic information systems (GIS) to aid with emergency preparedness, public health analysis, planning, logistics, and communication efforts. The presentation is taking place at the Public Health Preparedness Summit in Atlanta, GA.
Andrew Schroeder, PhD, MPP, Director of Research and Analysis, Brett Williams, Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, and Damon Taugher, Director of Direct Relief USA, have been at the week-long conference to share Direct Relief’s successes at using open-source GIS software and Google Earth to create rich, locally focused preparedness maps.
This afternoon’s two-hour session, titled Introduction to Emergency Preparedness Mapping: Open-Source Geographic Information Systems and Google Earth will include information on how Direct Relief uses mapping tools to identify partners in disaster-prone areas and provide targeted preparedness and response to these areas.
The Direct Relief team will share how their mapping capabilities helped with emergency preparedness in the U.S. Gulf Coast to identify community clinics and health centers in affected zones and equip them with hurricane prepreparedness packs so that they would have medicines and medical supplies to treat patients if a major storm made landfall.
They will also speak about their response efforts immediately following the recent earthquake in Haiti. Direct Relief worked with Google, UN-SPIDER, and ESRI (ArcGIS) to develop a comprehensive mapping system to assess damage of health facilities in Haiti resulting from the quake. Working in Haiti since 1964, Direct Relief had previously plotted locations of partner hospitals and other healthcare organizations in the country, and was able to view real-time satellite imagery of partner facilities to gather information and detect the extent of damage.
The Public Health Preparedness Summit brings together experts to identify current priority areas in public health preparedness, access key resources and tools that will enhance or sustain their work, and develop a network of people who share a commitment to improving public health response to disasters. The summit is one of the premiere conferences for hundreds of emergency management leaders at local, state, and federal levels.
The nation’s top public health officials are also speaking at the conference, including Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services; Dr. Nicole Lurie, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Department of Health and Human Services; Dr. Alexander Garza, Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer, Department of Homeland Security; and Dr. Thomas Frieden, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About Direct Relief International
Founded in 1948, Direct Relief is a Santa Barbara, California-based nonprofit organization focused on improving quality of life by bringing critically needed medicines and supplies to local healthcare providers worldwide. Direct Relief has provided more than $1 billion in privately funded humanitarian aid since 2000, including more than $150 million in assistance in the United States. It has earned a fundraising efficiency score of 99 percent or better from Forbes for the past eight years, and is ranked by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as California’s largest international nonprofit organization based on private support. For more information, please visit www.DirectRelief.org.
###