Combating Microbial Terrorists: How to End Our "Déjà vu All Over Again" Preparedness Paradox

Emerging Diseases Banner

Thursday, April 13, 2017 - 11:30am to 1:00pm

Mississippi Room, Coffman Union

From anthrax to Zika, the new millennium has challenged us with an ongoing lineup of new and re-emerging infectious disease threats. Each outbreak prompts a reactive response, short-term resource investments, and eventual codification of "lessons learned." Unfortunately, our retrospective analyses of opportunities to improve preparedness have not translated into the meaningful long-term investments and actions necessary for success, and we remain highly vulnerable to the next threat. Dr. Gerberding described how health protection science, government leadership, and social mobilization must work together and address this challenge head-on if we are to ever achieve the vision of global health security.  

Co-sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Prevention (CIDRAP), the Institute on the Environment (IonE), and the Food Protection and Defense Institute.

Listen to an audio version as broadcast on MPR News Presents (1 hour, 10 minutes)

Commentator: 
Amy Kircher, DrPH
Director, Food Protection and Defense Institute
Assistant Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine
University of Minnesota 

Moderator: 
Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH
Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP)
Regents Professor
McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health
Distinguished Teaching Professor, Environmental Health Sciences
Professor, Technological Leadership Institute
Adjunct Professor, Medical School
University of Minnesota 

Accreditation Statement:
In support of improving patient care, University of Minnesota, Interprofessional Continuing Education is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to provide continuing education for the healthcare team. 

American Medical Association (AMA)
The University of Minnesota, Interprofessional Continuing Education designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Other Healthcare Professionals
Nurses, pharmacists  and other health care professionals who participate in this CE activity may submit this statement of participation to their appropriate accrediting organizations or state boards for consideration of credit.  The participant is responsible for determining whether this activity meets the requirements for acceptable continuing education.

Attorneys
The Minnesota State Board of Continuing Legal Education has approved 1.5 Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits; Event Code is #231145.

Julie L. Gerberding, MD, MPH, FACP, is Executive Vice President and Chief Patient Officer, Strategic Communications, Global Public Policy, and Population Health at Merck, where she also has responsibility for the Merck for Mothers program and the Merck Foundation. As Chief Patient Officer, Dr. Gerberding leads efforts to engage with patients and patient organizations to bring their perspectives into Merck to help inform company decisions.

Dr. Gerberding served as director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for seven years, from 2002-2009. In that position she led public health initiatives in response to crises such as avian flu, natural disasters and anthrax bioterrorism. She originally joined the CDC in 1998 to lead their Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, having previously served as director of the Epidemiology and Prevention Interventions Center at San Francisco General and a tenured academic faculty at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Dr. Gerberding attended college and medical school at Case Western Reserve University and trained in internal medicine, infectious diseases, and clinical pharmacology at San Francisco General Hospital and UCSF. Along the way she earned a master's degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley.