Key Objectives:
1. Discuss how population monitoring is conducted at a Community Reception Centers (CRC) facility following a nuclear or radiological incident. 2. Present the Epi Info™ electronic CRC data collection tool to state and local public health officials. 3. Discuss needs and gaps in public health data following a nuclear or radiological incident and how this tool can be improved to address them.
Brief Summary:
Following a radiation incident such as an improvised nuclear device detonation, state and local response authorities will need to establish one or more population monitoring and decontamination facilities to assess people for radioactive exposure, contamination, and the need for decontamination or other medical follow-up. These facilities are known as community reception centers (CRCs). A CRC facility can be activates for weeks or months depending upon the extent of radiation incident. The basic services offered at a CRC include the following: screening people for radioactive contamination, assisting people with washing or decontamination, registering people for subsequent follow-up, and prioritizing people for further care. Data collected at CRCs will be crucial for many public health response activities and will enable: Characterization of the affected population including vulnerable/special populations for situational awareness; Provision of accurate epidemiological data that can be integrated into long-term registries for follow up of latent health effects after radiation exposure; Identification of risk factors associated with particular environments or activities (proximity, being outdoors, etc.) for effective public health messaging; Prioritization of limited medical resources such as countermeasures or bioassays to population groups that have a higher risk of exposure or internal contamination based on susceptibility factors; and Improvement of the accuracy of dose reconstructions by collecting personal variables needed in dose calculations. To improve data collection in the CRC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed an Epi Info™-based electronic data collection tool (CRC Epi Info Tool) for use in CRCs following a nuclear or radiological incident. A suite of software tools providing core epidemiologic functionality, Epi Info™ is a free and commonly used platform by public health professionals for data collection, statistical analysis, and data visualization that can be used with a local area network of laptops, tablets or cell phones. The CRC Epi Info Tool can be modified by state and local responders to fit their needs for a specific radiation emergency. Attendees will learn about CRCs, types of data collected at a CRC, and how to use the CRC Epi Info Tool.