Report includes actionable recommendations to inform contagious disease outbreak planning<\/p>\n\n\n\n
COLUMBIA, S.C. (August 17, 2022) \u2014<\/strong> The South Carolina Institute of Medicine and Public Health (IMPH)<\/a>, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to collectively inform policy to improve health and health care in South Carolina hosted a press conference to release its latest taskforce report: Lessons Learned from COVID-19: Contagious Disease Outbreak Planning and Response in South Carolina<\/a><\/strong>. The report includes actionable recommendations to inform contagious disease outbreak planning and response based on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In partnership with the North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM)<\/a>, IMPH launched the Carolinas Pandemic Preparedness Taskforce<\/a> to examine pandemic preparedness, response and recovery in North and South Carolina. Formed in 2021, the taskforce included more than 80 experts and key perspectives from both states across many areas representing health departments, health care associations and health systems, health care providers, academia, community representatives, philanthropy, social services, behavioral health providers, advocates for vulnerable populations and public safety and emergency preparedness organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe COVID-19 pandemic continues to lead to widespread societal changes,\u201d says Maya Pack, executive director of IMPH. \u201cIt is of the utmost importance for us to not only document and learn from the pandemic but also find ways to inform and enact policy that will help South Carolina navigate the challenges presented by epidemics, pandemics and other contagious disease outbreaks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As pandemic fatigue spreads, the taskforce finds it critically important to document the events of the first years of COVID-19 and develop recommendations for future leaders in South Carolina \u2014 many of whom may not have firsthand experience planning for and responding to contagious disease outbreaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n North and South Carolina taskforce members found commonalities in recommendations needed to address a number of factors related to the pandemic, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Carolinas Pandemic Preparedness Taskforce was guided by a focus on equity, a cross-sector approach to health and well-being and attention to the needs of vulnerable populations and historically marginalized communities,\u201d says Dr. Harris Pastides, Carolinas Pandemic Preparedness Taskforce co-chair. \u201cWe must create the infrastructure, preparedness and response resources that will protect us all moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The taskforce\u2019s South Carolina-specific report includes recommendations addressing public health infrastructure, data, workforce, education, supply chain, health care delivery, behavioral health and telehealth and broadband. The report also examines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Carolinas Pandemic Preparedness Taskforce worked diligently from 2021-22, collecting and sharing its insights, information and recommendations for the report. The findings in this report are meant to be shared broadly to inform policies and practices to protect communities in the Carolinas today and in the future. For information on the taskforce, the contributors and more, access the full report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About IMPH<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The South Carolina Institute of Medicine & Public Health (IMPH) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to collectively inform policy to improve health and health care in South Carolina. In conducting its work, IMPH takes a comprehensive approach to advancing health issues through data analysis and translation and collaborative engagement. IMPH seeks to achieve its mission by convening a diverse group of stakeholders around health issues important to South Carolina. Learn more at <\/em>imph.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n ###<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Report includes actionable recommendations to inform contagious disease outbreak planning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,23,5],"tags":[],"work-type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imph.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imph.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imph.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imph.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imph.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13663"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/imph.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13706,"href":"https:\/\/imph.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13663\/revisions\/13706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imph.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imph.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imph.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13663"},{"taxonomy":"work-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imph.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/work-type?post=13663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}