APEC Project Database

Project Title

Enhanced APEC Health Communications: Collaborative Preparedness in Asia-Pacific

Project Year

2006

Project Number

HTF 01 2006

Project Session

Not Applicable

Project Type

Standard

Project Status

Completed Project

Project No.

HTF 01 2006

Project Title

Enhanced APEC Health Communications: Collaborative Preparedness in Asia-Pacific

Project Status

Completed Project

Fund Account

Operational Account

Sub-fund

None

Project Year

2006

Project Session

Not Applicable

APEC Funding

82,989

Co-funding Amount

203,507

Total Project Value

286,496

Sponsoring Forum

Health Task Force (HTF)

Topics

Health

Committee

Not Applicable / Other

Other Fora Involved

Not Applicable / Other

Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved

Not Applicable

Proposing Economy(ies)

United States

Co-Sponsoring Economies

Korea; Chinese Taipei

Expected Start Date

01/01/2006

Expected Completion Date

31/12/2007

Project Proponent Name 1

Dr. Ann Marie Kimball

Job Title 1

Director, APEC Emerging Infections Network

Organization 1

University of Washington

Telephone 1

206 616 2949

Email 1

akimball@u.washington.edu

Project Proponent Name 2

Not Applicable

Job Title 2

Not Applicable

Organization 2

Not Applicable

Telephone 2

Not Applicable

Email 2

Not Applicable

Declaration

Not Applicable

Project Summary

The aim of this project is to improve public health bio-preparedness by enhancing communication, coordination, and cooperation among the relevant sectors of the APEC economies, e.g. health, agriculture, trade, communications, and first responders, through the collaborative participation in computer-supported biopreparedness exercises. APEC EINet (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation - Emerging Infections Network), a longstanding asset of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), will engage an open collaboration of economies within the Cooperation in an ongoing virtually held series of discussions concerning bio-preparedness, with a focus on scenario exercises, and working towards the goal of reinforcing pandemic influenza preparedness (to synergize with REDI Center efforts). The value added of this project is the application of advanced networking communications technologies between economies, facilitated through partnering leading research universities, governments, and advanced networking entities within the economies.

The goal of the project is four-fold:

• Improve public health emergency preparedness in APEC member economies.

• Reduce economic risk in these economies through enhanced intersectoral preparedness for epidemic disease.

• Use advanced network technologies and applications for secure communication, collaboration and visualization.

• Continue to provide timely disease alerts, and updated distance learning
materials as core activities of APEC EINet

By facilitating cooperation between public health sectors of the member economies, and integrating existing systems of computing and communication into this collaboration, the entire Asia Pacific region can reduce the biological and economic threat posed by emerging and re-emerging infections. A high-visibility vehicle to accomplish this, which demonstrates the value of computer-supported distance collaboration, will stimulate demand for application of the underlying technologies in the health sector and other key sectors of all participating economies. Project activities will also include the ongoing maintenance of the epidemic alert and information function of APEC EINet, as suggested in the Leaders’ statement on Health Security, October 2003.

This project advances the first of the six strategies, electronic networking, adopted in the Leaders’ Declarations of 2001 and 2002. It also builds on the APEC EINet resource cited in the Health Security Declaration of 2003.

Relevance

This project supports the objectives of the Leaders in the areas of sustainable developments and Ecotech. Since 2000, APEC Leaders have recognized the economic impact of emerging infectious diseases. This project advances electronic networking, a strategy adopted in the Leaders’ Declarations of 2001 and 2002. Project activities also include and build on the ongoing maintenance of the epidemic alert and information function of APEC EINet, as indicated in the Leaders’ statement on Health Security, October 2003. The project directly supports the APEC Agenda for S&T Industry Cooperation and the Mexico Declaration of the APEC Regional Minister’s Conference on Science and Technology. It also contributes to emergency preparedness for which Leaders specifically pointed out in 2003 in response to emerging infectious diseases.

The program responds directly to the APEC action plan “A Reason to Act and Acting with Reason” which includes electronic networking and intersectoral collaboration as two key strategies of the six outlined for APEC.

Objectives

· Continue to provide timely, reliable, and accurate disease alerts and updated distance learning materials as core activities of APEC EINet.

· Improve public health emergency preparedness in APEC member economies and reduce economic risk in these economies through enhanced collaboration across sectors in preparing for epidemic disease.

· Use advanced high-quality network technologies and applications for secure communication, collaboration and visualization and to strengthen working relationships among sectors within and across economies.

Alignment

Beneficiaries and Outputs

Our success will be measured through the number and vigor of participation by capable economies and the successful dissemination of lessons learned. Technical success will be measured through advanced network performance metrics to be further specified.

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Project deliverables will include:

· Produce through demonstration a demonstration of the utility of existing computing and communications systems in diverse member economies which will set the stage for future use of advanced networking for health.

· Establish a Steering Committee from the collaborating partners to guide the plenaries and exercises.

· Provide necessary technical support identified for the successful conduct of the virtual plenary.

· Distribute to all partner centers finalized summary of preparedness strategies in use. This will provide key information to participating economies.

· Collaboratively prioritize a content area i.e. pandemic influenza preparedness, SARS or other to collaboratively address in more detail. This priority will be in keeping with the HTF directions and APEC Leaders tasking.

· Provide the technical and logistical capabilities for the preparedness exercises incorporating advanced networking as a resource for each of the participating economies.

· Establish metrics and measurement instruments.

· As directed by the Steering group, following the virtually plenary to partner with participating economies to conduct preparedness discussions and exercises and gather qualitative information on the success of the exercises.

· Evaluate qualitative findings pertaining to communications, coordination, and content usability.

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Through the collaborative participation in computer-supported discussions, sharing of other preparedness exercises and lessons learned, communication, coordination, and cooperation among the relevant sectors of the APEC economies, e.g. health, agriculture, trade, communications, and first responders, can be improved to enhance public health bio-preparedness. By facilitating cooperation between public health sectors of the member economies, and integrating existing systems of computing and communication into this collaboration, APEC member economies can reduce the biological and economic threat posed by emerging and re-emerging infections.

Dissemination

a. the nature of the target audience;

APEC member economies and to a smaller degree APEC EINet subscribers. The virtual plenaries themselves will involve all interested economies. This will provide immediate dissemination of critical content to participating economies.

b. the form and content;

APEC EINet will carry summary reports of each plenary with lessons learned and recommendations to our 800 users on a periodic basis during the project. Scientific reports on the metrics of the evaluation will be published and a final report and demonstration will be presented at the APEC Leaders’ summit as a deliverable of this Health Task Force activity.

c. format (e.g. hard copies, floppy discs, internet uploading);

APEC EINet website, EINet news brief bulletin, and hard copies.

d. number of copies for the publication;

The EINet bulletin is sent to over 1500 active users every two weeks electronically.

e. a publicity plan for:

i) briefing the general or specialist media about key components of the
project;

This will be a subject of discussion with the steering group.

ii) the promotion of sales or other dissemination of the final product; and

This will be a subject of discussion with the steering group.

f. A budget for publication and dissemination, to form part of the itemized
budget.

This does not apply. All dissemination planned at this point is described. If further dissemination through formal publication occurs it will be decided by the steering committee and self funded through participating economies.

Gender

Women are included in the leadership of this project (A.M. Kimball), and in the key consultants who will be involved. While the project does not focus on gender issues per se, women as mothers and caretakers are impacted greatly by epidemics of infectious diseases both directly and indirectly. In many economies women are also central breadwinners, and the economic impacts of job loss and higher prices for goods would also impact these women directly.

The dissemination includes primarily electronic means. Further tailoring of dissemination will be undertaken as necessary by participating economies.

-----------------------------

Women have been involved in every step of the planning to date, and it is anticipated this level of involvement will continue.

Work Plan

Task 1 – Pre-Symposium planning and technology testing

1.1 Finalize partners from participating economies (research universities, advanced networking entities, and relevant ministries), assess specific interests, and develop “straw man” demonstrations of proposed simulation strategies. Collaboratively develop full agenda for virtual meetings with participating economies.

Deliverables

Establish a Steering Committee from the collaborating partners and develop draft simulation strategies.

Task 2 - Virtual Meetings

Hold a virtual “kick-off” plenary meeting on Regional Preparedness of the participating economies, followed by smaller meetings as necessary, hosted with existing videoconferencing facilities. Facilitate the virtual meetings to test the existing level of communications technologies.

2.1 Finalize participants, agenda for virtual plenary

2.2 Meeting Planning-Technical

Assess technical capabilities and availability of network bandwidth.

Deliverables

Provide necessary technical support identified for the successful conduct of the virtual plenary.

2.3 Virtual Meetings

Facilitate virtual meetings to discuss the content material in the draft simulation strategies. Practicality of existing communications technologies will also be tested.

Deliverables

Distribute to all partner centers finalized simulation strategies.

Task 3 – Preparedness Exercises

Develop an informal inventory of preparedness strategies and exercises in use by participating economies.

3.1 Curriculum Development

Identify existing materials in partner economies to draw upon and develop new materials for use in preparedness exercises.

Deliverables

Collaboratively prioritize a content area i.e. pandemic influenza preparedness, SARS or other to collaboratively address in more detail. This priority will be in keeping with the HTF directions and APEC Leaders tasking.

3.2 Computer Supported Collaborative Framework[1]

After identifying existing computer-supported materials in partner economies, develop and disseminate an appropriate computer supported collaborative framework that will enable distance interaction around virtual tabletop exercise materials.

Deliverables

Provide the technical and logistical capabilities for exercises to take place in each of the participating economies.

3.4 Measurement Instruments

Create plan for collecting and analyzing observational data, as well as use and employment of existing hardware and software and informational products in participating economies.

Deliverables

Establish metrics and measurement instruments.

3.5 Preparedness Exercise Execution

Selected preparedness strategies will continue to be conducted on a local level over a given time period incorporating desirable common elements derived from 3.1 to 3.3 above. Project partners will lend technical support if needed to ensure the successful execution of the exercises.

Deliverables

Successfully conduct preparedness exercises and gather qualitative information on the success of the exercises.

Task 4 - Evaluation of communications, coordination, and content

Evaluate and assess the usability of the hardware products, software products, and informational content products within the exercise.

4.1 Usability-Communications technology

Assess the utility of the virtual simulation exercises.

Deliverables

Evaluate qualitative findings pertaining to communications, coordination, and content usability.

[1] Computer Supported Collaborative Framework: Secure, multi-participant, web-based software application that permits shared display and manipulation of documents.

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Three (3) economies: Korea, Taipei and Singapore. Other economies will be invited and included during the course of the project and all economies currently receive the EINET bulletin which will summarize lessons learned.

Risks

Not Applicable

Monitoring and Evaluation

Linkages

The project hinges on the participation of APAN (Asia Pacific Advanced Network Consortium), APEC and APRU (Asia Pacific Research Universities) which represents an alliance of public sector (university and government) and an interface with private industry with APAN. APAN's mission is to coordinate and promote R&D activities on networking including technology, applications and services; and to provide an advanced networking environment for research and education communities in the Asia-Pacific region. APRU is a consortium of leading research universities in the Asia Pacific region. The notion here, then, is to join these three networks -- human networks of public health professionals, telecommunications networks, and a network of leading research universities -- all in support of bio-preparedness among APEC economies.

The new APEC Virtual Preparedness Task Force would be a potential partner within APEC.

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The project responds to the following realities within APEC and seeks to prevent or mitigate future similar occurrences:

· APEC member economies were severely affected by recent emerging respiratory diseases: SARS, HPAI.

· APEC member economies dealt with severe economic and health consequences from these diseases. The human impact in mortality and morbidity for SARS was counted in the thousands of cases, and the hundreds of deaths. The economic impact of SARS has been estimated by the World Bank at $85 million, the estimates for Avian Influenza are still being tallied. Preparedness should be utmost priority with such emerging infections

In addition, the use of a high-visibility vehicle that demonstrates the value of computer-supported distance collaboration will stimulate demand for application of the underlying technologies in the health sector and other key sectors of all participating APEC member economies.

The project contributes to working towards the goal of reinforcing pandemic influenza preparedness (to synergize with REDI Center efforts), and WPRO/WHO preparedness efforts. The project fits within the “APEC HTF: Terms of Reference” directly. Complementing and not duplicating the work of the WHO, and the WPRO and WHO focal points for Emerging Infections have been consulted throughout the project and will continue to be:

· Focus on areas not specifically addressed by the WHO or for which WHO programs are relatively weak and APEC would have a competitive edge.

· This means focusing on issues related to interdependence of health and trade or economic development, with priority on major infectious diseases.

· The HTF should be aware of key relevant activities of WHO and other international organizations.

· Invite the WHO to participate as a guest at HTF meetings, and consult informally with WHO and other international organizations with relevant expertise, in accordance with APEC rules, as the HTF determines its priorities and modalities for cooperation.

· Explore ways APEC can complement the efforts of WHO and other organizations to prevent/control regional economic impact caused by infectious disease, e.g., through facilitation of timely cross-sector communications and cooperation and rapidly bringing issues for collective action to the attention of Leaders (fast-tracking).

· Beyond the prevention and control of infectious diseases, APEC could address several health issues of major economic importance, including human resource planning, non-communicable disease control, strengthening of health systems, etc.

Sustainability

Not Applicable

Direct Labour

Not Applicable

Are there any supporting document attached?

Project No.
Project Title
Project Status
Fund Account
Sub-fund
Project Year
Project Session
APEC Funding
Co-funding Amount
Total Project Value
Sponsoring Forum
Topics
Committee
Other Fora Involved
Other Non-APEC Stakeholders Involved
Proposing Economy(ies)
Co-Sponsoring Economies
Expected Start Date
Expected Completion Date
Project Proponent Name 1
Job Title 1
Organization 1
Telephone 1
Email 1
Project Proponent Name 2
Job Title 2
Organization 2
Telephone 2
Email 2
Declaration
Project Summary
Relevance
Objectives
Alignment
Beneficiaries and Outputs
Dissemination
Gender
Work Plan
Risks
Monitoring and Evaluation
Linkages
Sustainability
Direct Labour
Are there any supporting document attached?
hdFldAdmin
Project Number
Previous Fora
Secretariat Comments
Reprogramming Notes
Consolidated QAF
Endorsement By Fora
PD Sign Off
Batch
Forum Priority
Committee Ranking Category
Committee Priority
PDM Priority
Priority Within Funding Category
Monitoring Report Received
Completion Report Received
PMU Field 1
PMU Field 2
PMU Field 3
On Behalf Of
Proposal Status
Originating Sub-Forum
Approval Status
Attachments

Content Type: Standard Proposal