Determining a Topic

Given my professional background in health insurance, my first two areas of interest focus on health-related issues. Health care affects everyone – it has the potential to impact large numbers of individuals across the country, and throughout the world. It affects consumers, employers, physicians, and as evidenced by the upcoming 2008 presidential election campaign, it has become a highly-debated and topic amongst our politicians.

The first issue that interests me is pandemic and disaster recovery planning for business entities, primarily around the health care field. The dictionary defines a pandemic as an “epidemic over a large area.” Worldwide concerns around a potential outbreak of influenza, most recently the avian flu, have prompted many global organizations to consider developing an emergency response system for disaster management. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) shares their own pandemic preparedness plans on their website, http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/pandemic/en/. On a national level, many companies have begun to inquire about their health insurance carriers’ pandemic preparedness and response plans in the event such an outbreak were to occur. Employers want reassurance that, in the event of a pandemic or disaster, their members will have reasonable access to medical services in a timely manner and their health care plan’s operations will continue in a reasonable manner. In the case of hospitals and physicians, appropriate plans need to be established to guarantee medical personnel are available to assist and provide services during this event. The consequences of an influenza pandemic are overwhelming, but proper planning and effective communication will help to minimize the social, medical, and economic effects of such an event.

Health information technology (HIT), my second area of interest, is another recent trend gaining momentum in the health care industry – it has become the gateway to consumer education and increased efficiencies with health care delivery. Front and center in the HIT focus is the sharing of information to facilitate communication and establish a secure exchange of data. This sharing of information requires interoperability and the establishment of standards. Many health insurance companies have developed personal health records, or PHRs, whereby individuals can securely access their own personal health information online. This opens doors not only to consumers educating themselves, but also in facilitating the doctor-patient relationship and sharing their personal health information. Other areas of interoperable health information technology include electronic medical records and e-prescribing on the physician side. This focus on technology has garnered nationwide political attention as President Bush signed his Four Cornerstones Executive Order which includes interoperable health information technology as a key component to health care improvement.

The third issue is my wild card – care for animals in the event of a disaster. Hurricane Katrina brought to light an alarming fact – those who were forced to flee their homes were unable to take their pets with them. In reading more about this through the Humane Society’s website, I was shocked to learn that people who had to leave their homes were forced to leave their best friends behind to fend for themselves. This resulted in the death, abandonment, and displacement of thousands of animals. And, to this day, many have yet to be reunited with their owners. I would like to explore the area of risk communication in the area of disaster prevention for our most defenseless friends.

With further research, I will be in a better position to effectively communicate the appropriate risk for my chosen topic.