The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Kentucky announced a new competition to promote innovative use of the National Health Security Preparedness Index and to identify ways in which it stimulates intra- and multi-sectorial communication, collaboration, and action to improve health security.

What is the Preparedness Index?

The National Health Security Preparedness Index tracks the nation’s progress in preparing for disasters, disease outbreaks, and other emergencies that pose threats to population health. The Index is the only tool that measures changes in health security preparedness capabilities over time, across a broad array of domains and sectors, for every U.S. state and the nation as a whole. The Index integrates data from more than 130 individual measures, derived from more than 50 different data sources, to provide a multi-dimensional view of preparedness.

What is the Challenge?

Individuals and teams were invited to tell us their stories of how they are using the Index to improve preparedness and resiliency at local, state, and national levels. Successful applications illustrated how the Index’s data and measures provide actionable information that can be used by government, communities, the private sector, and the media to enhance health security and preparedness across the U.S. We were particularly interested in learning about novel ways of using the Index to:

1. Communicate the importance of preparedness to stakeholders and raise awareness, knowledge, and understanding about core preparedness capabilities and components;
2. Convene stakeholders and initiate dialogue and discussion across organizations and sectors about preparedness roles and responsibilities;
3. Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to preparedness capabilities and resources;
4. Develop shared priorities and plans for improving preparedness across sectors and stakeholders;
5. Strengthen coordination, collaboration and partnerships among organizations and sectors working to improve preparedness;
6. Advocate and secure resources for improving preparedness and health security;
7. Provide technical assistance and support to stakeholders seeking to strengthen their contributions to preparedness and health security; and
8. Monitor progress in improving preparedness, informing updates and corrections to improvement plans and strategies.

The application deadline was July 31, 2017.