The 2013 National Health Security Preparedness Index (NHSPI)™ was released to the public on Wednesday, December 4. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) hosted the kickoff event which took place from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Dirksen Senate Office Building and included key presentations by Dr. Ali Khan, director of the CDC Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response Dr. John Lumpkin,  senior vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and chair of the NHSPI™ Steering Committee, Dr. Tom Inglesby,  chief executive officer of the UPMC Center for Health Security and chair of the NHSPI™ Governance Committee, Dr. Cathy Slemp, former state health officer and preparedness director from West Virginia and chair of the NHSPI™ Stakeholders and Communications Work Group, Mr. Jim Craig, director of health protection from Mississippi, and Mr. Bruce Clements,  public health preparedness director for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The NHSPI™ measures the health security preparedness of the nation by looking collectively at existing state-level data from a wide variety of sources. Uses of the Index include guiding quality improvement, informing policy and resource decisions, and encouraging shared responsibility for preparedness across a community. The attendees of the event included Congressional staff, federal, state, and local government representatives, and members from the private sector. For more information on the NHSPI™, visit www.nhspi.org.