Research conducted during disaster response has the potential to guide ongoing response and recovery operations, improve knowledge about health consequences of disasters, understand the effectiveness of response strategies from a scientific perspective and inform future preparedness planning. Developing and implementing collaborative, integrated approaches to Disaster Response Research (DR2) can be challenging process, however, and thus prevents critical findings from being adopted.
To address this challenge, a team of Center-affiliated researchers and other key stakeholders developed a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) template intended to support academic public health departments and public health agencies to develop and implement collaborative DR2. This template, which drew from existing literature, qualitative interviews and focus group discussions, outlines actionable strategies and a pathway by which to begin developing DR2 programs prior to the next disaster.