Responses to various disasters and emerging threats have revealed the dire need for improved ability to perform rapid data collection and research for such events. As such, the National Institutes of Health Disaster Research Response Program (DR2) was created to build and promote tools, processes, and relationships to collect vital exposure and health information in response to environmental disasters. The DR2 Program, a collaborative effort between the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and the National Library of Medicine, reduces the time required to deploy a public health research response after disasters by providing access to over 345 online publicly available data collection tools and information. Metadata was also developed to help researchers review and understand the utility of the various tools for differing situations. Additionally, a novel human subject reviewed protocol that can be rapidly modified and used for future disaster situations has been developed. This protocol includes the ability to perform medical testing and collection of exposure data, including biospecimens. National workshops, large-scale tabletop exercises, and new networks linking academia, public health officials, and impacted communities have also been created to test initiatives, address ethical considerations and Institutional Review Board issues, and to implement environmental health and exposure research in response to emergencies. As such, the research community is now poised to begin moving into a new era of strategic science as part of disaster response efforts. This presentation will facilitate understanding of common barriers in disaster research and strengthen awareness of efforts to improve our collective capacity to perform time critical human health and exposure assessments to support decision-making and improve preparedness, response, and recovery efforts.
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