Case Study

Supporting anti-terrorist protection

The Department of Homeland Security’s BioWatch Program provides early detection of a bioterrorism event and helps communities prepare a coordinated response. The combination of detection, rapid notification, and response planning helps federal, state, and local decision-makers take steps to save lives and mitigate damage.

BioWatch is managed by the Office of Health Affairs in the Department of Homeland Security, supported by other federal agencies, and operated by a network of scientists, laboratory technicians, emergency managers, and public health officials in each of the 30+ BioWatch jurisdictions.

The BioWatch QA Program ensures that the BioWatch Program continues to provide actionable results with high confidence to local public health decision makers. The QA Program was established in 2011 to ensure field and laboratory operations are conducted according to program policies, protocols, and QA and quality control (QC) requirements to ensure the defensibility of results. Laboratories must be accredited to participate.

Further information is available on the Government website.