#MCNYlive: Facing the Future: Predicting and Preparing for Disease Outbreaks

"Facing the Future: Predicting and Preparing for Disease Outbreaks" took place on April 3, 2019.

Experts expect the next deadly epidemic to happen within two generations so, the question becomes, how can we prepare?

Data and informatics are available as tools to inform and promote public health as never before. Now we can track and analyze microbes and diseases through bodies, populations, and places. However, there are legal and ethical concerns about privacy when tracking people’s data. What does this kind of biosurveillance mean, especially in a world where health policy has become increasingly political?

Investigative journalist and author Sonia Shah sits down with Larry Madoff, MD, director of ProMED-mail, Amy Fairchild, PhD, MPH, associate vice president for Faculty and Academic Affairs at the Health Science Center at Texas A&M University, and Lauren Flicker, associate director of the Montefiore Einstein Center for Bioethics to discuss how best to predict and prepare for the next impending outbreak.

This program is presented by the New York Academy of Medicine and the Museum of the City of New York in collaboration with Wellcome. It is part of Wellcome’s international project Contagious Cities, which explores the interplay of people and pathogens in urban contexts.

Supported by Wellcome as part of Contagious Cities.

"Germ City" is made possible in part by Valerie and John W. Rowe; Johnson & Johnson; the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation; and the Honorable Keith Powers, New York City Council, District 4.