The increasing number of extreme events such as heat waves and wildfires has revealed a critical gap in systemic data collection. In response, the National Science Foundation, with supplemental funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has launched the Public Health Extreme Events Research (PHEER) network to serve as the coordinating platform for the public health disaster research community of practice.
PHEER is comprised of public health experts from universities in four U.S. states, including Nicole Errett of the University of Washington, and represents a federally-funded effort to build response readiness to public health crises at the local, state and federal levels. PHEER aims to rapidly mobilize members after natural hazard events to collect health data on impacted communities. Gathered data will then be disseminated to other researchers, practitioners and policymakers to help inform disaster research agendas, funding decisions and advance the field of public health disaster science.