CEPAR Johns Hopkins University 5801 Smith Avenue Davis Building · Suite 3220 Baltimore, MD 21209 Phone: 410.735.6450 Fax: 410.735.6440 Directions to CEPAR (PDF)
CEPAR_flash4
CEPAR Monitoring Pakistan Disaster
The Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response has been closely monitoring the humanitarian crisis and the world response in Pakistan. At this point, unlike Haiti, reliefagencies responding to the crisis have not requested assistance, but that may change as circumstances warrant.
Gabe Kelen, M.D., CEPAR’s director, notes that the U.S. and a number of othergovernments already have launched major relief efforts through traditional channels. But CEPAR, he said, “stands ready to provide any appropriate help as we continue to work with other nationalexperts” monitoring the crisis. Johns Hopkins faculty and staff interested in contributing individually to the relief effort may wish to visit the U.S. State Department web site to learn how theycan contribute.
Johns Hopkins Medicince Joins U.S. Navy Mission
Johns Hopkins Medicine has signed an agreement with the U.S. Navy to provide medical and disaster research experts to staff the USS Iwo Jima during the next four months, as the ship sets sail to provide medical assistance to Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana and Suriname.The mission is part of the Navy’s annual humanitarian project, Operation Continuing Promise.
Between August and early November, Johns Hopkins plans to send at least 16 experts, including doctors, nurses, physician assistants, researchers and members of the Johns Hopkins Go Team, who are trained in disaster response, to staff the vessel during its humanitarian mission.
The second Johns Hopkins medical team departed Aug. 21, and the first Johns Hopkins medical team departed Aug. 8.
The first team to deploy is shown here with U.S. Navy Commodore Thomas M. Negus on the USS Iwo Jima: Christina Catlett, M.D., (photo, right) an emergency doctor and disaster expert from Johns Hopkins Hospital; Robert Dudas, M.D. (photo left), director of pediatric hospitalist medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center; Melisa Rios (photo, center left), an emergency nurse from The Johns Hopkins Hospital; and Lauren Sauer (photo, center right), a senior research coordinator from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
The team will join a number of other experts from nonprofit and other organizations assisting the Navy with the Continuing Promise mission.
Future teams from Hopkins will include other members of the Departments of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, as well as students from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Nursing and Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Jim Scheulen, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR), which signed the Continuing Promise agreement and is coordinating the Hopkins staffing, says the partnership is an outgrowth of work with the Navy during the Haiti earthquake relief effort earlier this year. CEPAR sent two Johns Hopkins medical teams to help staff the Navy’s floating hospital, the USNS Comfort, while it was stationed in Haiti.
CEPAR is interested in forging a stronger relationship with the Navy, Scheulen said, so it can be prepared in the future to move lifesaving medical help and other expertise into major disaster zones quickly and with the proper security and logistical support. In addition, says Scheulen, the Navy’s Operation Continuing Promise gives Hopkins and CEPAR an opportunity to share its extensive disaster medicine expertise around the globe and to study and learn from the planning, techniques and protocols that other countries have established for responding to major calamities with significant casualties.
“We are really excited about this partnership. The Navy’s Continuing Promise mission provides Hopkins with the perfect setting to learn while we are teaching, “ says Scheulen. “It’s also a great way for Hopkins to bring its world-class medical and disaster response expertise to people in remote communities around the world.”
Johns Hopkins Go Team Haiti Video
Members of The Johns Hopkins Go Team who helped earthquake victims in Haiti describe their experiences and what they learned on their challenging missions.
CEPAR: Command Center for Johns Hopkins Planning and Response to Threats
The chief mission of The Johns Hopkins’ Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR) is to coordinate disaster planning, response, policy, and research among all the affiliates of the Johns Hopkins Institutions.CEPAR’s objectives are:
To create and implement effective Johns Hopkins enterprise-wide planning and preparedness for critical events requiring a medical/public health disaster response.
To develop a model medical/public health disaster response plan integrated with local, regional, military and federal entities.
To serve as a model medical/public health disaster planning and response system adaptable to other major metropolitan areas nationally and worldwide. CEPAR combines the talents of Johns Hopkins Medicine with the tactical planning capabilities of the Applied Physics Laboratory, the investigative skills of the School of Public Health, and the faculty expertise from the greater Johns Hopkins community.
This enables CEPAR and Hopkins to take a leadership role in planning for, and responding to, critical events.Since its creation, CEPAR has demonstrated its leadership within the Hopkins institutions and nationwide.
For example, it spearheaded the creation of the 24-member consortium of academic, business and government entities that comprise the national Center for the Study of Preparedness and Catastrophic Event Response (PACER). Funded initially in 2006 by a $15 million grant from the federal Department of Homeland Security, PACER is developing projects to ensure that this nation’s immense technological, medical and physical resources can be coordinated effectively in response to any disaster.Other CEPAR successes include:
Development of mass casualty planning tool, which can help disaster planners, emergency officials at hospitals, and others prepare for disasters. You can read more or download a copy of the Emergency Mass Casualty & Assessment Planning Scenarios (EMCAPS) tool here.
CEPAR oversaw planning for Johns Hopkins Medicine's response to the H1N1 pandemic, as well as organizing and coordinating getting trained disaster medicine experts to Haiti to assist with the humanitarian crisis from the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. The experts deployed were part of the Johns Hopkins Go Team, a multi-disciplinary medical group of 185 trained to respond to disasters.
