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Tutorial/Training Workshop 1: Epidemiology and Surveillance of Pandemics and Infectious Diseases - New opportunities for engineers and computer scientists

Duration: Half-Day
1:30 pm. - 5:00 pm., 9th July (Wednesday)

Instructors:
Prof. Luis Kun
Senior Research Professor
Homeland Security at the IRM College of the National Defense University, USA

Registration Fee:
Conference Participant - SGD$90
Non-Conference Participant - SGD$150

Registration:
To register for the workshops/tutorial, please download the WORKSHOP registration form, and fill the required information and fax to the conference secretariat at (65) 63567471.

Participants can still register and make payment onsite at the workshop, using cash or credit card. For assistance or any problems with registration, please kindly contact the conference secretariat.

IEEE HEALTHCOM 2008 Conference Secretariat:
Integrated Meeting Specialist
Tel: +65 6356 4727 / +65 6356 7545
Fax: +65 6356 7471
Email: healthcom@inmeet.com.sg
Mail: Block 998 Toa Payoh North, #07-18/19 Singapore 318993

NB: The online registration was closed on 23rd June due to logistic purposes.

Objectives:
This bird flu epidemic policy exercise is part of the Information Resource Management College, Homeland Security Information Management, Tools and Techniques course that will be offered in May 2008. The exercise seeks to:

• Illustrate table top gaming as a tool for homeland security policy assessments
• Raise issues about the national security and homeland security implications of a pandemic event
• Familiarize students with the range of federal agencies involved with Homeland Security policy making.


Method:
This simulation will be conducted in a table top format. It has three moves.
Student / Participant players represent senior officials from federal agencies determining policy and strategy options to deal with an initial outbreak of bird flu; the world-wide spread of the epidemic with cases appearing in the United States, and to an avian flu pandemic throughout the U.S and the rest of the world.

The discussion will be guided a set of issues and approaches developed for the players by “DHS staff.”

These ‘courses of action’ are tentative; participant should feel free to reject, modify, or replace any of them. Part of their analysis of issues may be tasking for subordinates for next step planning or seeking critical elements of information. The participants are not expected to have detailed knowledge of tactical response to medical emergencies. The goal is for participants / students to understand some of the policy issues, coordination requirements, and implications of various courses of action.


Schedule:
We will execute a compact version of this exercise. There are three moves, each with discussion of about half an hour.

• Move 1: September 18, 2008. Responding to an avian flu outbreak in South East Asia
• Move 2: December 2, 2008. Responding to worldwide spread of the outbreak and initial involvement of U.S. population
• Move 3: March 15, 2009. Responding to pandemic flu in the United States
Neurological insults to the central nervous system such as strokes and brain injuries often cause residual chronic impairments which affect independence and quality of life. This session will introduce the core principles in neurorehabilitation including prediction of functional outcome. Recent interest in rehabilitation-related recovery and neuroplasticity have led to the development of newer techniques in rehabilitation including specific medications to improve outcome, functional electrical stimulation driven neuroprostheses, constraint-induced movement therapies and use of robotic aided techniques for ambulation and upper limb training. The art of neurorehabilitation also involves the integration of such techniques into the clinical rehabilitation milieu.

Dr. Luis Kun is a Senior Research Professor of Homeland Security at the IRM College of the National Defense University where he developed and is the Course Manager for the following curricula: Homeland Security Information Management (HLS), Homeland Security Information Management: Tools & Techniques (HST), Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets (CIP), Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Intelligent Agents and Decision Support Systems. He graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy in Uruguay and holds a BSEE; MSEE and Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering all from UCLA. After a 14 year career with IBM, Dr. Kun was the Director of Medical Systems Technology and Strategic Planning at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in LA.; the Senior IT Advisor to the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research where he formulated the IT vision and was the lead staff for HPCC program and Telehealth. He co-authored the Reports to the Congress on Telemedicine (1997) and on HIPAA Security. In July of 1997, he was invited speaker to the White House. He was largely responsible for the Telemedicine portion of the bill that became part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Dr. Kun represented the DHHS Secretary at a Pan American Forum of Health Care Ministers on Telecommunications and the Health Care Industry in Mexico in 1997. As a Distinguished Fellow at the CDC (1999-2001) he was the Senior Computer Scientist for the Health Alert Network for Bioterrorism and later the Acting Chief Information Technology Officer for the National Immunization Program (NIP) where he formulated their IT vision on 10/2000.

Dr. Kun has made numerous seminal contributions to the information technology, healthcare and public health disciplines. He received many awards including the “2002 - IEEE-USA Citation of Honor Award”: “For exemplary contributions in the inception and implementation of a health care information technology vision in the United States. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). He is the Founding Chair of the IEEE-USA: Critical Infrastructure Protection Committee; the Bioterrorism & Homeland Security WG (for the Medical Technology Policy Committee) and the Electronic Health Record and High Performance Computers and Communications WG (former HCEPC). He is currently the Editor in Chief of the “Handbook of Biomedical Information Technology” for Academic Press / Elsevier. He is a member of the Executive Board and the Board of Directors of AIMBE and the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES). He also is an Advisor to many National and International diverse organizations such as: Advisory Board (AB) to Caring Technologies /TalkAutism; AB the Boston Children’s Hospital (at Harvard and MIT) Biodefense Project (Information Systems for Bioterrorism Preparedness project); AB to Spain’s Telemedicine Networks (ISCIII); Member of the Joint WG on Telemedicine; Scientific AB – Medical and Care Compunetics (Netherlands); Advisory Committee of Collaborative Communications Summit (Health and IT) He has lectured on medical and public health informatics, information technology and biomedical engineering in over 50 countries. He is in the IEEE Computer Science and the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Distinguished Visitor Program and is/was in the advisory board of many magazines and professional journals. He has served as an invited: Conference, track, session, tutorial, special symposia chair and/or publications, speaker / keynote speaker and in conference scientific committees, etc. over 250 times. He was recently elected to the IEEE –Society of Social Implications of Technology Board of Governors.