What to know
This page describes the Disaster Science Responder Research (DSRR) Program. The program develops and implements tools, policies, partnerships, and procedures to allow for real-time research during public health emergencies. The program also identifies and conducts research to perform outside the scope of an emergency to protect workers in the future.
Overview
The DSRR Program looks at all workers impacted by a disaster or public health emergency. This includes workers beyond traditional response and recovery workers.
Research conducted when a disaster or public health emergency occurs can include:
- Impact of a new exposure
- Unexpected or severe health effects
- Effectiveness of a proposed intervention
- Mental health and resilience issues
- Disease outcomes with latency periods
Research priorities
Strategic Goals
- Identify critical topic areas to enhance safety and health among all workers impacted by public health emergencies
- Address major logistical, technical, and administrative challenges associated with conducting research during a public health emergency
- Identify existing data collection capabilities and information resources to use or modify for occupational research
- Ensure study findings are rapidly shared to inform the ongoing response
Topic Areas for COVID-19
The program identifies critical topic areas to address research gaps that can be studied outside the scope of an ongoing response. The critical topic areas for COVID-19 research include:
- Economics
- Engineering Controls
- Epidemiology and Surveillance
- Mental Health
- Occupational Environmental and Exposure Assessment
- Occupational Violence
- Personal Protective Equipment
- Transmission and Occupational Health
- Zoonosis