Progress Report #2

1.16.09

1. PREVIEWED SOURCES :
People:

• Kalynn Chumney-My thesis partner. She and I discussed my topic for a while allowing me to articulate my ideas.
• Mr. Engholm- I talked with him about what types of things that I should include in my thesis paper. I also chatted with him about my Inquiry Statement and what types of things that I should say and I bounced different forms of my Inquiry Statement off of him.

Articles:

• Title:
  Unbuilt public health lab a linchpin in state's readiness for bioterrorism
  Authors:
  Toland, Bill
  Source:
  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA); 03/23/2005
• Website Link: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nfh&AN=2W60022330297&site=ehost-live
• This article discusses a Pittsburgh, PA idea to prepare for a biological terror attack. The article references a group called: Trust for America's Health: it is a Washington-based health advocacy group that has created a ranking among the fifty states for biogolical terrorist attack prepared ness. It also mentions a conference on Biological Terrorism that I would like to find transcripts from.
• http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4904a1.htm
• This is from the CDC it should be a very good source.
• http://search.hhs.gov/search?q=+Biological+Terrorism+Preparedness&entqr=0&ud=1&sort=date%3AD%3AL%3Ad1&output=xml_no_dtd&site=HHS&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&lr=lang_en&client=HHS&proxystylesheet=HHS

2. INQUIRY STATEMENT: I am curious as to how I create the best possible solution to the problem of United States hospitals being ill equipped to handle a massive influx of patients due to a biological terrorist attack.

3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

• What history is there of Biological Terrorist attacks around the world?
• Are C/B (chemical/ biological) terrorist attacks even a probable threat to the United States? - This question basically asks whether or not my thesis will hold water - if you know what I mean.
• What solutions have previously been proposed about this issue, if any at all? - This would be good for me to know so that my solution wouldn't copy someone elses.
• What kinds of materials would be necessary to prepare a single hospital to handle a possible C/B attack?
• How much would my solution cost/ per hospital?
• Would it be necessary to equip every hospital to be able to handle an influx C/B attack patients?
• If not which hospitals should be equipped?
• Would the total cost be and would it be practical to equip hospitals all at once?
• Should I incorporate an implementation schedule for my solution?
• Who should I talk to about my idea to access my potential solutions practicality? - This would have to be someone involved in a hospitals administrative staff.
• How could I make my solution fiscally responsible?
• Would it be possible to get government funding for my solution, possible later on?
• Can Categorical/ Block grants given to my plan to cut down the cost for each individual hospital? - My goal here is not to shut down hospitals or to send them into bankruptcy with the introduction of my plan, which makes me think that I need to make sure that I find a PRACTICAL way to implement my solution