A social media message library launched by the Center for Public Health Readiness and Communication (CPHRC) at the Drexel University School of Public Health will assist public health agencies and health care organizations with using new media platforms for crisis and emergency risk communication. The content was reviewed by content and risk communication experts in public health agencies across the country.

Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the library features messages developed for commonly used social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Pre-developed templates and messages for 23 specific hazards are available through a publicly-accessible web-based platform that can be found here: http://publichealth.drexel.edu/research/research-centers/center-for-public-health-readiness-communication. Messages for additional hazards are currently being developed, and will soon be added to the library.

Drexel CPHRC is also developing a training program for 2015-2016 in public information and risk communication for public health agency staff and health care partners in Pennsylvania. The program will consist of workshops, a webinar series, and a virtual exercise.

Working with the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Drexel CPHRC is integrating key community health care partners into public health preparedness activities.

• The Center has developed tools and guidance documents to assist primary care medical practices with emergency preparedness planning, including promoting preparedness among their patients with special health care needs. In early 2015, the Center hosted a six-part webinar series for medical practices in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Medical Society and the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians. Tools presented to this group are freely available at http://publichealth.drexel.edu/research/research-centers/center-for-public-health-readiness-communication. An archive of the webinar series, with continuing education credit, will be available for practitioners for the next two years.
• This winter, the Center will carry out plans to integrate pharmacists in Pennsylvania into disaster planning, to ensure that individuals who depend on life-sustaining medications can access pharmaceuticals during emergencies, and to develop roles for pharmacists during disasters that require medical countermeasure distribution to large numbers of people. The Center will conduct a training program and a tabletop exercise for the state’s pharmacists and public health agencies at the mid-year meeting of the Pennsylvania Pharmacy Association.
• The CPHRC collaborated with two national professional societies that represent urgent care and walk-in clinics, to survey urgent care sites in Pennsylvania regarding their capabilities and willingness to participate in a community-wide response to a public health emergency.