Public Health Preparedness and Response Committee

The PHPR Committee serves as technical experts to advise the Board and the association on all-hazards laboratory preparedness for, and response to, public health emergencies, natural disasters and emerging threats as they relate to issues affecting the membership. Key activities for the committee include:

1. Promoting maintenance of laboratory capability and capacity to respond to all-hazard threats
2. Coordinating across the organization during response to public health emergencies
3. Identifying future risks and developing proactive strategies to strengthen the public health laboratory system
4. Guiding evaluations of new and emerging technologies
5. Establishing and maintaining relationships and outreach efforts with key partners. 

• Provide leadership and technical expertise to enhance laboratory practice, preparedness and response through rapid detection and identification of emerging threats. 
• Refine and develop public health preparedness policy documents, funding guidance and performance measures. 
• Strengthen public-private partnerships for threat detection and rapid response. 
• Promote a consistent, coordinated lab systems approach in federal responses. 

• Developing an appendix for the Biosecurity Exercise Toolkit with preparedness and response drills and exercise examples to assist members with meeting requirements, included in the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Cooperative Agreement exercise framework and Federal Select Agent Program.        
• Developing a biological threat component for the APHL Verification and Validation Toolkit. 
• Developing a laboratory-specific surge capacity plan template, incorporating elements outlined in the PHEP Cooperative Agreement.  
• Assessing laboratory needs related to cybersecurity breaches and expanding APHL’s existing Continuity of Operations Plan guidance to include enhanced cybersecurity incident planning and response. 
• Updating the APHL Biothreat Identification Bench Cards and Poster to include guidance on sample receiving and awareness of emerging and unknown threats. 

• Safeguarding Public Health Laboratories: Addressing Cybersecurity Threats in a Digital Age Webinar 
• Surge Capacity Tabletop Exercise Template and Guidance Tool 
• Position Statement: All-Hazards Preparedness and Response is Not Sustainable Without Increased Funding for Public Health Laboratories