The National Collaborative for BioPreparedness (NCBP) is a functional system that has the ability to collect extensible data sets and offer deeper insight into an emerging health incident of national concern through data analytics and anomaly algorithms, rather than rearticulate already known and existing

credit:

How's Your Community Doing?
Check Out it's
Community Vital Signs

information.

This is a continuation of the program that supports the development of a comprehensive, statewide system to analyze public health trends and detect incidents that may threaten homeland security.

This program works toward a national preparedness system to guide activities that will enable the Nation to achieve the National Preparedness Goal.

The system will allow the Nation to track the progress of our ability to build and improve the capabilities necessary to prevent, protect against, mitigate the effects of, respond to, and recover from those threats that pose the greatest risk to the security of the Nation.

As identified in the Quadrennial Homeland Security Report (QHSR) 2014:
“A Homeland Security Strategy for Countering Biological Threats and Hazards.

Biological threats and hazards—ranging from bioterrorism to naturally occurring pandemics—are a top homeland security risk.

They have the potential to significantly impact the health and well-being of the Nation’s people, animals, and plants.

These threats and hazards may also be highly disruptive to our efforts to pursue the homeland security missions.

They may overwhelm our state, local, tribal, and territorial partners and may threaten our ability to maintain essential functions and carry out day-to-day operations.” This program directly supports the Homeland in combating/deterring the four (4) priority biological threats and hazards:
- Pathogens posing particular bioterrorism concerns (e.g., anthrax, plague, and smallpox), including enhanced and advanced pathogens; - Emerging infectious diseases that are highly disruptive (e.g., viruses that could cause human pandemic); - Animal diseases and plant pathogens or pests that are highly disruptive (e.g., foot- and-mouth disease); and - Bioterrorist contamination of the food supply chain and water systems.

NCBP utilizes an array of bio surveillance information sources to integrate local and State data to provide early warning and enhanced situational awareness of events within the Homeland.

DHS expects the project to meet the following objectives during the period of performance:
1. Operate, maintain, and improve an already functional NCBP system architecture including its ability to effectively detect and analyze private health data for rapid warning and disseminate information to federal, State, and local stakeholders for interventional decision making.

2. Develop, in collaboration with DHS OHA, a plan including intermediate and final milestones, performance metrics, risk assessments and mitigation plan, timelines for data integration, and funding requirements, to grow NCBP into a sustainable national model for biosurveillance.

3. Expand the NCBP geographic footprint toward a national biosphere surveillance capability and enhance collaboration between federal, State, local, tribal, and private sector partners using IT systems, communications, and networks that possess the required information, information policies, and governances.

a.

Maintain existing Data Use Agreements with key agencies and jurisdictions.

b.

Seek geographic expansion in partnership with OHA to strategically target BioWatch jurisdictions to enhance interpretation of BioWatch Actionable Results.

c.

Continue ongoing negotiations for data acquisition and establish new Data Use Agreements with priority cities and states as identified in collaboration with DHS OHA.

This includes, but is not limited to:
California (San Diego), Georgia (Atlanta), New York, Texas, and West Virginia.

d.

Obtain and incorporate 911/EMS (NEMSIS) data into the NCBP system.

e.

Rapidly, in near real-time, share information, queries, searches and observations among federal, state, and local users to support early warning, situational awareness, and interventional decision-making.

4. Expand NCBP to include other necessary data sets for biosphere surveillance across the spectrum of human, animal health, food, and the environment.

This includes publicly available data as well as integrating private data sets from organizations identified in collaboration with DHS OHA.

5. Demonstrate the ability to access and employ surveillance, health-related information systems and sensors engaged in bio-surveillance, emergency response, recovery, and population health research data from a variety of public and private repositories.