HEALTHCARE AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

Off-site surge management
Dean Popov

Emergency management standards
William F. MacKay

Developing a community wide plan
Dr. Laurie Mazurik

Operational emergency preparedness: Best practices for emergency education, training and exercises
Dean Popov

Public health and management guidelines: Protecting against the spread of emerging and re-emerging diseases
Gerilynne F. Nephew

Pandemic planning in the long-term care facility: Facing up to the threat, getting down to solutions
Chingiz Amirov

Lockdown, screening and antiviral chemoprophylaxis in a long-term care facility during pandemic influenza
Chingiz Amirov

Public health acute care integration: A model for disaster preparedness
Gerilynne F. Nephew

Dr. Mazurik is Strategic Lead of Disaster and Emergency Preparedness at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Science Centre. She has twelve years experience on staff with the Department of Emergency Services and is Medical Director of Education for both Paramedics and Medical Students. She was a member of the MOH SARS Operation Centre in 2003 and over the past 3 years has been a lead organizer of 8 major multi-service disaster exercises across Ontario. More recently, she is collaborating with others to build Web-based disaster education and real-time disaster information systems.

Chingiz Amirov is the Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Baycrest - a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto and one of Canada's largest long-term care facilities. He received his Masters degree in Public Health from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He also holds a degree in Preventive Medicine from the Azerbaijan State Medical School. In the recent past, he has worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). His professional career covers a range of infectious disease subjects, from TB control in penitentiary systems, to HIV/AIDS surveillance in urban settings, to a facility-level pandemic planning and preparedness. Pandemic influenza planning is one of such unique areas, where he has been a lead person preparing Baycrest to public health emergency of this kind.

Gerilynne Nephew has been a Public Health Nurse in the City of Toronto for 21 years. She has worked in a variety of programs in the Family Health and Healthy Lifestyle programs, as a public health nurse, health education consultant, program co-coordinator and manager. During the SARS outbreaks in Toronto in 2003, Geri was initially a manager in the communication centre, which received over 316,000 calls. She was redeployed to the case management team, which was responsible for over 2000 investigations during the SARS outbreak in Toronto. She became the lead manager on the case management team in Phase 2 of the SARS outbreak, and has continued as a manager in the Communicable Disease Liaison Unit in the post-SARS environment in Toronto Public Health. Geri is currently the lead manager for Pandemic Influenza Planning & Preparedness for Toronto Public Health.

Advisor at Imperial Oil, working initially in Atlantic Canada and seeing his responsibilities grow to a national, and then an international level. He chaired a Hazmat Recommendations visioning project involving industry and three levels of government, which develop recommendations for responding to Hazmat incidents in Canada. He has also chaired the Chemical Industry Emergency Response (TEAP) committee and co-chaired a joint Canadian/ U.S. Chemical industry task group that produced a Cross-Border Emergency Response Guide. He initiated development of the "Disciplined Approach to Emergency Response, "which is widely used by the Canadian oil and chemical industry and by Exxon- Mobil Chemical internationally. He has been an instructor on the Canada Coast Guard Marine Emergency Management Course, and currently provides emergency management consulting service through MacKay Emergency Management Consulting.

Dean Popov is the Manager for the Advanced Life Support and Special Operations Programs at the Sunnybrook-Osler Centre for Prehospital Care (SOCPC). These programs oversee the medical direction of paramedics for both Toronto EMS and Peel Region Paramedic Service. Dean has also played a lead role in the planning and execution of many large scale disaster exercises in the last 3 years. These exercises have included the Toronto Tactical, CBRN and HUSAR teams as well as the Emergency Medical Assistance Team and various hospitals throughout the province. Dean was also part of the team that designed the emergency medical response plans for the mass gathering at the Rolling Stones SARS Concert at Downsview Park in 2003.