Websites and tools

Analysis and Mapping of Policies for Emerging Infectious Diseases (AMP EID) is a first of its kind tool to inform the future of pandemic preparedness policy and outbreak response. AMP EID enables rapid identification of the global policy environment to facilitate response efforts. This tool creates a single site to examine which countries are parties to international agreements relevant to pandemic preparedness and response, what laws and regulations are in place to govern EIDs, and other relevant factors that will impact a nation’s response to public health emergencies.

Data last updated in 2024, updates ongoing.

The COVID Analysis and Mapping of Policies (AMP) visualization tool is a comprehensive database of policies and plans to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Decision-makers can use COVID AMP’s user-friendly interface to easily identify effective policies and plans to reduce the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data last updated in 2022.

COVID AMP is part of the COVID-Local suite of free resources developed for local decision-makers who are working to keep their communities safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A research paper on this project is available here.

Key citation: Katz R., Graeden E. COVIDAMP.ORG: A Global Resource for Governance in the Time of COVID. Research Brief 2020-07. Washington: Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science & Security, 2020.
https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/ix15j0jx14hpjte5l7oi8nvsgkkk2un6

Biosecurity Central is a publicly available web-based library that aims to widely disseminate and share knowledge to help advance biosafety and biosecurity initiatives. The site directs users to relevant and reliable resources and tools from around the globe, published by governmental, international, and non-governmental organizations. The library is available without cost, online, and organized by topic and use case. It is designed to be easily searchable, includes a guided exploration workflow, and provides the key details of each resource with direct access to the resources and tools wherever possible.

Data last updated in 2024, updates ongoing.

The Global Health Security Tracking tool is an integrated mapping and data visualization platform showing the flow of international funding for global health security from funder to recipient globally. The tool tracks funding targeted to improve health security core capacities, funds for outbreak response, and health security metrics.

Data last updated in 2022.

A peer-reviewed paper on this project is available here.

Key project citation: Katz, R; Graeden, E; Kerr, J; Eaneff, S. “Tracking the Flow of Funds in Global Health Security.” EcoHealth (2019) 16:298-305.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10393-019-01402-w

Key data citation: Robertson, H., Graeden, E., Eaneff, S., John, C., Kerr, J., Lin, J., Omar, Y., Smith, K., Stevens, T., Tammareddy, H., van Maele, M., Zimmerman, R., & Katz, R. (2024). Global Health Security (GHS) Tracking dataset (1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11267145

Health Security Net is a publicly accessible, centralized database of warnings, evaluations, oversight efforts, strategies, and other documents that relate to pandemics prior to 2020. It provides a readily available source of information for policymakers, researchers, journalists, the general public, and other interested parties to access documents written about pandemic risk in the past; unearth patterns that reveal why response may be insufficient to date; and develop improved policies for the future.

Data last updated in 2023.

A white paper on this project is available here.

A manuscript on the project published in Health Security can be found here.

Key citation: 25 Years of Pandemic Warnings: Health Security Net, A Global Health Security Library. (2021). Georgetown University.
https://healthsecuritynet.org/Health_Security_Net_Report.pdf

The Georgetown Outbreak Activity Library (GOAL) provides rapid access and search for a comprehensive library of the activities required for response to disease outbreaks, including case studies, information about the stakeholders, and guidance mapped to each activity.

Data last updated in 2024.

A research paper on this project is available here.

Key project citation: Outbreak Activity Library: An online, user-friendly compilation of activities essential for effective outbreak response. (2020). Georgetown University.
https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/p64gdearegdw9rdtnn0044o8ole7g7nv

Key data citation: Katz et al. (2024). Georgetown Outbreak Activity Library (GOAL) dataset (1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11061125

Effectively responding to and managing the COVID-19 pandemic requires close operational coordination across sectors. These response efforts rely on the key principles of emergency management, including coordination of efforts as typically managed by Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs). This site, developed by Georgetown University and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provides rapid access to training materials, checklists, and other resources for development and strengthening of public health emergency management capacities, with an emphasis on EOCs.

Data last updated in 2023.

Bioscenarios is a rapid visualization tool demonstrating the diversity in biological outbreak scenarios, each coded by 12 characteristics and ranked by relative likelihood to cause fatalities in humans and animals.

Data last updated in 2020.

A peer-reviewed paper on this project is available here.

Key citation: Katz R, Graeden E, Kerr J. (2018). The complexity of biological events. The Lancet Global Health. 6-2: 136-137. DOI: 10.1016/S2214-109X(17)30494-1.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(17)30494-1/supplemental

Deliberate Biological Event (DBE) Tool is an interactive teaching tool that aligns policies with the stakeholders mandated or authorized to act in responding to a deliberate biological outbreak (e.g., bioterror or state-sponsored attack), including a static visualization of how nations can request assistance for such events. Each policy is associated with when during an outbreak it is triggered and the responsibilities associated with organizations from different sectors affected by the policy in response to a DBE.

Data last updated in 2020.

A peer-reviewed paper on this project is available here.

Key citation: Katz R, Graeden E, Abe K, Attal-Juncqua A, Boyce M, Eaneff S. (2018). Mapping stakeholder and policies in response to deliberate biological events. Heliyon. 4(12): e01091. DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2018.e01091.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S240584401832351X

The IHR Costing Tool helps users generate and review cost estimates to support practical planning for sustainable capacity development to prevent, detect, and respond to public health threats, as defined by the International Health Regulations (IHR). This tool provides a framework to calculate costs for implementing and enhancing IHR core capacities. Costs are estimated by applying country-specific user input data to cost calculations developed using best practices for achieving the technical standards specified in the Joint External Evaluation Tool (JEE).

Data last updated in 2020.

A peer-reviewed paper on this project is available here.

Key citation: Katz R, Graeden E, Eaneff S, Kerr J. Strengthening health security- an intuitive and user friendly tool to estimate country level costs. BMJ Glob Health 2018;3:e000864. DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2018-000864.
https://gh.bmj.com/content/3/4/e000864.abstract

The Integrated NTD (Neglected Tropical Diseases) Tool is a web-based decision support tool to aid policy makers in decisions regarding the benefits of integrating malaria and schistosomiasis control programs. The user interface translates epidemiological parameters into easily interpretable recommendations.

Data last updated in 2020.

A peer-reviewed paper on this project is available here.

Key citation: Standley CJ, Graeden E, Kerr J, Sorrell EM, Katz R. Decision support for evidence-based integration of disease control: A proof of concept for malaria and schistosomiasis. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2018; 12 (4): e0006328. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0006328

We have migrated several decades of WHO’s prose reports of Disease Outbreak News (DON) into a searchable spreadsheet. The data are now organized by a comprehensive data structure for consistent naming conventions for countries, outbreaks, type of disease event, and standard outbreak measures.

The structured data are available for download at the GitHub repository linked below.

Data last updated in 2022.