Bio-Event Resource Management System (BRMS)

Due to the growing threat of biological weapon use and other bio-events, there is a critical need for bio-defense and bio-response systems. In order to prepare for a bio-event, it is necessary to understand the resources needed for containment and treatment of the biohazard. Further, it needs to be decided where the necessary resources should be positioned in order to best prepare for a bio-event, and how the resources should be moved in order to get them to the affected city or cities as quickly as possible. The bio-event resource management system (BRMS) is meant to be a supplemental component to Mitretek System's already existing bio-event system dynamics model. The current model simulates the effects of a spreading infectious disease on an affected city, but lacks a method for allocating resources. An additional component is necessary to improve the representation of the utilization of resources to aid in the control and treatment of a disease after a bio-event. The proposed component will be used to determine the best way of getting resources to an affected city. In particular, two alternatives are analyzed: an organic supply alternative in which cities are pre-supplied with resources, and a regional depot alternative in which resources are transferred to the affected city from a regional resource warehouse. Due to the many uncertainties concerning the type of bio-event that may occur, a range of disease parameters have been simulated in order to conduct a sensitivity analysis and produce a robust design. This will aid in determining the best overall method of pre-positioning resources. The results of a literature review are also presented. The combined inter-related systems have been simulated and evaluated to provide inputs to the decision process required for bio-event preparation. This paper presents the results of a model to evaluate alternative bio-event resource management system designs