Trainer
Rashid Chotani, MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins University, Director of the Global Infectious Disease Surveillance & Alert System (GIDSAS)

Description
In this training, Dr. Chotani examines the path of the avian influenza and examines how it could impact world health.

Trainer Biography
Dr. Chotani is the Director of the Global Infectious Disease Surveillance & Alert System (GIDSAS) Program for Humanitarian Assistance. His research and professional activities are directed towards the use of epidemiological and non-epidemiological methods for surveillance and prevention of infectious diseases in developing countries and disaster situations. He has worked on surveillance systems for infectious agents nationally and internationally that have the potential to be used in biological warfare. Two patents were filed on methodologies he developed:  The Information Technology in Support of Early Detection of Bioterrorist Event & Hierarchical-Adaptive Algorithms for Detecting the Onset and Propagation of Health Events in Populations.  He served as the PI for the DARPA-funded Presidential Inauguration (2001) bio-surveillance task and as Co-PI and domain expert on the ESSENCE II program. He also assisted in the development of the HL-7 standards and LOINC/SNOMED codes for electronic disease reporting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

During the initial phases of the SARS epidemic he came up with the notion of Just-in-Time (JIT) lectures and since has collaborated with the University of Pittsburgh Supercourse Site on developing lectures within 48 hours of a health or humanitarian crisis. He has been following influenza H5N1 since it first appeared in 1997 and has developed and delivered various lectures locally, nationally, and internationally.

Dr. Chotani has also responded to international disasters such as the Tsunami in Indonesia and Sri Lanka and the recent earthquake in Pakistan. For his efforts, the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) presented him with the Award for Selfless Commitment Toward Worldwide Disaster Relief Efforts. Dr. Chotani has directed and collaborated on infectious disease surveillance projects in Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.