The 2009 John Auerbach Team Award for Innovations in Public Health

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The John Auerbach Team Award for Innovations in Public Health: The 2009 Boston Influenza Response Team Sometimes it takes a village to respond to a global flu pandemic, and thats what it took this spring, fall and now winter, to mitigate the effects of the rapidly spreading 2009 H1N1 flu virus. Let us count the ways that staff from the Boston Public Health Commission, Boston EMS, the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals, the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, and other agencies came together as a team to showcase Bostons emergency response efforts for the whole world to see. There was the Public Health Preparedness Office planning, organizing, and executing Bostons first large-scale H1N1 vaccination clinics with military-like precision. There was the Metropolitan Medical Response Team coordinating the distribution of vaccine to Community Health Centers, an effort assisted by COBTH and the Mass League of Community Health Centers that so far has resulted in nearly 45000 Boston residents receiving H1N1 vaccinations. Boston EMS from headquarters to special operations to materials management to the irrepressible DelValle Institute provided logistical, management, and clinical support, not to mention trained a cadre of paramedics to become vaccinators. Outreach staff from the Community Initiatives Bureau manned the phones and hit the streets to deliver flu prevention messages in multiple languages to every nook and cranny of Boston including libraries **

Tags: 2009, Auerbach, Award, Health, Innovations, John, Public, Team

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