Maryland Food Protection Rapid Response Team Project

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) proposes a three-year project focused on the continued development and enhancement of the Rapid Response Team Concept. DHMH has already successfully established the State of Maryland Rapid Response Team (SMarRRT) that has had a major impact on food emergencies in Maryland and made significant contributions to the FDA's overall project. Because many food emergency response situations include wholesale and retail distribution across State lines, this project includes a significant component designed to improve inter-jurisdictional cooperation. <p>The project has five main focus areas:</p><p><ol><li> The continued application, development and improvement of techniques that not only find application in emergency response but can also be incorporated into the day to day food protection activities of Maryland as part of the Integrated National Food Safety Program; </li><li>The integration of electronic data transfer in Maryland between State and Local Health Departments (LHD) to support food emergency response; </li><li>The continued expansion of the RRT concepts into the LHD operations and incorporation LHD resources into SMarRRT to facilitate improved communications, response times and to provide additional surge capacity resources; </li><li>The continued development of a Mid-Atlantic RRT Conference to facilitate close cooperation across State lines in response to food emergencies: </li><li> The development of geographic information system (GIS) capacity and tools to enhance responses to all-hazards emergencies, and can be readily modified to meet the similar needs of other States and readily expanded across State lines for regional response activities. </li></ol></p>