Rear Adm. W. Craig Vanderwagen, the first U.S. Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response, talks about the challenges the country faces in biosurveillance and biodefense. He also discusses how information technology can help tackle future emergencies. Please click on the Play button below to listen to the Webcast.

Rear Adm. Craig Vanderwagen is in the public crosshairs as the first Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, a position created in December last year with the passage in Congress of a new bioterrorism bill.

It is his job, for example, as the federal government’s point man for public health emergencies, to coordinate with local authorities in the event of an emergency and shake loose whatever resources the government can provide.

It is a high-profile job but, given the acrimony that was leveled at the government following the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005, is it one anyone would want?

Fortunately, Vanderwagen, who was a speaker at the Government Health IT Conference and Exposition in Washington D.C., June 14-15, has plenty of experience. He’s been involved in emergency preparedness at HHS for some years, and before his current position he was the deputy secretary’s assistant for preparedness. In that role he led the teams who implemented changes at HHS that resulted from the White House “Katrina: Lesson Learned” report.

He was the senior federal health official in the government’s response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and he led the public health team that was deployed to Indonesia to assist in the recovery from the 2004 Pacific Tsunami.

Vanderwagen, who was confirmed in his new position on March 23, 2007, says the United States has a challenge when it comes to dealing with health emergencies and assuring biodefense because of its size and political complexity. But technology and the new tools his office has been equipped with provide a way to tackle it effectively.

-- Brian Robinson