BioterrorismNorth Carolina prepares for bioterrorism, epidemics
North Carolina universities and state and federal agencies create the new North Carolina Bio-Preparedness Collaborative; the idea is to use computers to link all the disparate forms of data collected by various agencies quickly to root out indicators of new disease, or food-borne illness, or, in a worst-case scenario, an attack of bio-terrorism
Across North Carolina, doctors, veterinarians, and other health care providers routinely collect reams of data. The problem is getting the data to the right people, and fast.
This is the idea behind the new North Carolina Bio-Preparedness Collaborative, or NCB-Prepared, for short. Unveiled Monday, the project is a joint venture between scientists at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, various state and federal agencies, and SAS, the software giant.
The News Observer reports that the idea is to use computers to link all these disparate forms of data quickly to root out indicators of new disease, or food-borne illness, or, in a worst-case scenario, an attack of bio-terrorism.
The project is funded for now through a 1-year, $5 million congressional grant snared thanks to U.S. Representative David Price of Chapel Hill. Project leaders hope to make enough progress over the next year to warrant further funding, with the audacious eventual goal of creating a national model for detection of bioterror and public health threats.
“Because this is being designed to be scale-able and adaptable to different environments, I truly believe…this may lead to advances in our security nationwide,” Price said Monday.
The key obstacle, officials at a kickoff event Monday said, has long been mixing information collection from different sources. The new project hopes to collect and analyze information gleaned from sources as varied as emergency rooms, veterinary exams and county health clinics.
