Infectious Diseases: Emergency Preparedness and Health System Resilience

This episode originally aired as a videocast which can be seen here.

Dr. Nino Kharaishvili, a global expert in health security and health system emergency preparedness and resilience, serves as the Principal of the Health System Resilience practice for Jacobs. She has more than 15 years of healthcare systems consulting experience supporting the U.S. Department of Defense, and most recently the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Biological Threat Reduction Program, which focuses on especially dangerous pathogen and infectious disease surveillance, biosafety and biosecurity.

Nino also has specific expertise in defining pathways for healthcare system sustainability and resilience, as well as designing and implementing various emergency management exercises aimed at improving public health emergency preparedness and response.

Dr. David Franz served in the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command for over two decades on active duty and retired as Colonel. He served as Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and as Deputy Commander of the Medical Research and Materiel Command.

David was also Chief Inspector on three United Nations Special Commission biological warfare inspection missions to Iraq. He also served as a member of the first two U.S.-U.K. teams that visited Russia in support of the Trilateral Joint Statement on Biological Weapons and as a member of the Trilateral Experts’ Committee for biological weapons negotiations. The current focus of his activities relates to the role of international engagement in public health and the life sciences as a component of global security policy.