The North Carolina Public Health Preparedness Systems Research Center (NCPHPSRC) will be created to conduct systems and services research related to public health preparedness systems in North Carolina. The research team, headed by Dr. Edward Baker, Director, North Carolina Institute for Public Health, UNC School of Public Health, will include senior researchers from UNC School of Public Health, other components of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and academic researchers from North Carolina State University, the University of Kentucky School of Public Health, the University of Arkansas College of Public Health and the Research Triangle institute (RTI). The research program will consist of a core which will support a range of coordination and translation activities including funding for pilot projects and new investigators. The core will include a research translation committee chaired by a senior representative of the North Carolina Division of Public Health to ensure rapid translation of research into policy and practice in North Carolina. The core will support research projects in four areas which will apply state-of-the-art public health systems research methodology to the study of specific elements of the North Carolina public health preparedness system. We will study current surveillance systems including NCDECT, a syndromic surveillance system, and NCEDSS, an electronic disease surveillance system in our first project. A second research project will study public health regional surveillance teams (PHRST) using systems research methodologies. A third project will address systems issues using systems engineering methodologies as applied to the study of the North Carolina Health Alert Network (NCHAN). A final project will study the impact of local health agency accreditation on preparedness of the North Carolina public health system. Results of all research activities will be actively disseminated through peer review publications and through appropriate national meetings. In addition to directly benefiting public health preparedness in North Carolina, study findings will have broad national benefit.
