Skip to Content

Tools

Report

Ensuring an Infectious Disease Workforce: Education and Training Needs for the 21st Century - Workshop Summary

Released:
February 24, 2006
Type:
Workshop Summary
Topic(s):
Health Care Workforce, Diseases, Global Health
Activity:
Forum on Microbial Threats
Board(s):
Board on Global Health

Note: Workshop Summaries contain the opinion of the presenters, but do NOT reflect the conclusions of the IOM. Learn more about the differences between Workshop Summaries and Consensus Reports.

Recent increased attention to the U.S. and international public health systems, as well as the medical research and treatment infrastructure, has revealed significant deficiencies in their capacity to respond to infectious diseases. Medical and public health professionals may be poorly equipped to detect, diagnose, and treat common infectious diseases as well as those diseases that pose an unexpected threat.

In considering strategies to confront these challenges, a workshop was held June 12-13, 2003, in which presentations and discussion addressed the practical application of technologies, methodologies, and practices related to infectious disease surveillance, prevention, research, and control. This report is a summary of that workshop. Particular emphasis was given to

  • the application of new and developing technologies that will redefine the infectious disease workforce,
  • collaborative training programs between public health and medical health care and research institutions in the US and abroad,
  • the reorientation of medical school curricula,
  • incentive-driven systems that encourage professional development in these fields, and
  • the role of public education and communication.

Some key disciplines that were explored as case-study examinations included public health epidemiology, medical entomology, vaccinology, bioethics, and bioengineering.


Other Reports by this Activity

Previous Meeting for this Activity

Get this Report

Stay up to date!