About
Mass dispensing of medical countermeasures is a complex effort because of diverse public health emergencies (e.g., chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear events) that can require very tight time constraints to deliver and administer significant volumes of medical countermeasures to the public. The focus of this workshop is on exploring how public-private partnerships can contribute to equitable access to and efficient dispensing and administration of medical countermeasures, with a particular focus on pharmacies and other non-traditional partners and points of access.
Specifically, this workshop will:
- Share examples of how public-private partnerships can be coordinated to develop and implement medical countermeasure dispensing strategies and to ensure resources, including personnel, equipment, technology, and physical space, are in place to dispense medical countermeasures.
- Share examples of how public-private partnerships can increase access to medical countermeasures through safe, familiar, and convenient locations.
- Understand the barriers to and facilitators of public-private partnerships for access to and dispensing of medical countermeasures.
- Identify how policies, systems, and perceptions need to shift to enable public-private partnerships for access to and dispensing of medical countermeasures.
Background
Many of the lessons learned from past health emergencies highlight the importance of public-private partnerships to facilitate and accelerate the research, development, and manufacturing of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics (i.e., medical countermeasures). Less focused on were those public-private partnerships that enabled the successful implementation (distribution, dispensing, monitoring, uptake, and utilization) of medical countermeasures (MCMs), also known as the “last-mile”.
A planning committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will conduct a series of virtual public workshops to examine lessons learned and future opportunities for public-private partnerships through novel distribution and dispensing models to facilitate delivery, uptake. and utilization of medical countermeasures (MCM) to the public during a public health emergency. This workshop will be hosted by the Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies.
The five-part workshop series will build on lessons learned from various public-private partnerships models deployed during the “last-mile” of the COVID-19 response and other recent health emergencies, such as retail pharmacies as points of diagnosis and dispensing of MCMs, and discuss potential paths forward for public-private partnerships to facilitate successful implementation of MCMs to the public during a health emergency. For this workshop series, MCMs are medicines and medical supplies that may be used to diagnose, prevent, or treat disease during a public health emergency.[1] Additionally, public-private partnerships refer to cross-sector collaborations between government, private for-profit, and non-profit entities.
Other workshops in the series include:
- Workshop 1: Public-Private Partnerships for Data-Informed Decision-Making to Distribute, Dispense, and Administer Medical Countermeasures – Tuesday, October 3, 2023, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET
- Workshop 2: Public-Private Partnerships for Acceptance and Uptake of Medical Countermeasures – Thursday, October 12, 2023, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET
- Workshop 3: Public-Private Partnerships for Dispensing and Administration of Medical Countermeasures – Tuesday, October 17, 2023, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET
- Workshop 4: Public-Private Partnerships for Distribution of Medical Countermeasures – Thursday, October 26, 2023, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET
- Workshop 5: Future Opportunities: Levers and Systems for Public-Private Partnerships to Distribute, Dispense, and Administer Medical Countermeasures – Thursday, November 2, 2023, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET
For additional information on the workshop series, please visit our project page.
Workshop Planning Committee
Ali S. Khan, M.D., M.P.H. (Chair), University of Nebraska Medical Center
Brooke Courtney, J.D., M.P.H., U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Nicole Errett, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., University of Washington
John Hick, M.D., Hennepin Healthcare
Christine Kosmos, M.S., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Nicolette Louissaint, Ph.D., Healthcare Distribution Alliance
Jennifer Martin, Pharm.D., Department of Veterans Affairs
Suzet McKinney, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., Sterling Bay
Anita Patel, Pharm.D., Walgreens
Sara Roszak, M.A., M.P.H., Dr.P.H., National Association of Chain Drug Stores
Monica Schoch-Spana, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Stephen Thomas, Ph.D., University of Maryland
[1] CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Medical Countermeasures. https://www.cdc.gov/orr/readiness/mcm2-508.html (Accessed September 5, 2023)