Better Communications Key to Pandemic Readiness, Summit Hears
Planning, technology and messaging are critical in preparing for a pandemic, panelists said Thursday at an FCC summit on the subject. Expanding telecom infrastructure like broadband networks will be crucial to dealing with a pandemic, officials said. But officials foresee challenges in keeping networks working during emergencies.
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A pandemic’s “broad, deep and simultaneous” effects can disrupt communication, so decision makers must know how to maintain operations in an outbreak, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said in opening remarks. The commission is exploring ways to keep networks going, to sustain safety operations and economic activity and put health and security information out to people, he said.
The FCC sees broadband as key maintaining workers’ output in a pandemic, said Dana Shaffer, the Wireline Bureau chief. The creation of networks under the Commission’s Rural Health Care Pilot Program, intended to encourage development and use of broadband by health care providers serving rural communities, is well under way, with networks ready in 2009, she said.
Building a partnership among hospitals, first responders, government and the communications industry is fundamental, said Terry Adirim, acting associate chief medical officer at Office of Health Affairs of Department of Homeland Security. That helps manage resources and avoid overlap in services and infrastructures and allows early coordination, she said.
Deborah Levy, chief of healthcare preparedness activity at the Centers for Disease Control agreed, emphasizing the need to plan across sectors. Agencies missing from the planning include urgent care clinics, home health associates and local governments and businesses, she said.
Local communities could have a “huge impact” in pandemics, Levy said. Kathy Robinson, program manager at National Association of State Emergency Medical Services Officials, agreed, saying community groups should get further guidance on how to manage resources.
Communication’s main goal in pandemics is getting the right information out quickly, said Patrick McCrummen, vice- president of communications and marketing at the American Red Cross. Timely, clear and consistent messages reduce confusion and rumor, he said. Non-emergency information systems are needed to prepare for emergency events when the 911 system is overwhelmed, he said, citing New York City’s 311 hotline for government information and non-emergency services.
There’s “tremendous interest” in rural areas in using the Internet to handle emergency situations, said EMS’s Robinson. That’s so, said Scott Sproat, interim service chief with Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response at the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Agencies shouldn’t rely on a single communication system, he said.
Meanwhile, severe emergencies could hamper telecom networks, said Robert Mayer, vice president of industry and state affairs at USTelecom. Social networking sites help spread the word but can spread rumors, too, causing panic, said McCrummen.