Mid-Atlantic Regional Center of Excellence

Mid-Atlantic Regional Center of Excellence
Name	Mid-Atlantic Regional Center of Excellence
Formation	2006
Headquarters	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Region served	Delaware Valley, Mid-Atlantic
Leader title	Director

Contents

Mid-Atlantic Regional Center of Excellence is a regional hub for public health preparedness and biodefense coordination serving the Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and surrounding states. It operates at the intersection of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Department of Homeland Security, and regional public health agencies to strengthen capacity for pandemic response, bioterrorism, and health security. The center convenes academic partners, clinical networks, and state agencies to deliver training, research, and operational support aligned with federal initiatives such as the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreement and Medical Countermeasures deployment.

History

The center was established following federal and state efforts after events including the Anthrax attacks of 2001, the Hurricane Katrina response reviews, and the subsequent reorganization of public health preparedness funding streams by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Department of Homeland Security. Early collaborations included institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson University, Drexel University, Rutgers University, Johns Hopkins University, and state departments of health in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Over time it expanded programmatic links to the Food and Drug Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and regional healthcare coalitions formed after implementation of the Hospital Preparedness Program.

The center’s mission aligns with mandates from Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and regional health authorities to improve readiness for events like H1N1 pandemic, Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, and COVID-19 pandemic. Core objectives emphasize strengthening laboratory networks including relationships with the Association of Public Health Laboratories and academic medical centers, enhancing clinical surge capacity through partnerships with systems such as Penn Medicine and Cooper University Health Care, and supporting surveillance initiatives tied to National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. The center also advances workforce development by collaborating with schools such as Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers School of Public Health, and Jefferson College of Population Health.

Governance is typically provided by a board comprising leaders from partner institutions like Pennsylvania Department of Health, New Jersey Department of Health, and the Delaware Division of Public Health, together with representatives from academic partners including Drexel University College of Medicine and Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals. Operational divisions mirror federal program areas—surveillance, laboratory, clinical operations, and training—and work with grant management offices familiar with National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requirements. Advisory committees include experts from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and regional hospital systems, while legal and ethics guidance draws on links to the American Medical Association and National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Programs incorporate exercises and drills modeled on Operation Crimson Sky-style scenarios, tabletop exercises aligned with Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program, and laboratory proficiency testing with partners like the Association of Public Health Laboratories. Activities include distributed clinical trials coordination with National Institutes of Health units, regional stockpile logistics planning tied to the Strategic National Stockpile, and workforce training delivered in partnership with Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. The center runs data integration projects leveraging standards from the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act and collaborates on simulation modeling with groups at Carnegie Mellon University and Princeton University.

Collaborators include federal agencies—Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Emergency Management Agency—state agencies such as Pennsylvania Department of Health, academia including University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, Drexel University, healthcare systems like Jefferson Health and ChristianaCare, and nonprofit organizations including Red Cross chapters. International linkages have been formed with organizations such as the World Health Organization for cross-border surveillance, and with research consortia at Wellcome Trust-affiliated centers. The center also engages private sector partners including pharmaceutical firms and logistics companies involved with Operation Warp Speed-era distribution frameworks.

Funding sources comprise federal cooperative agreements from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, program grants from National Institutes of Health, emergency supplemental appropriations following incidents like the COVID-19 pandemic, and state allocations from Pennsylvania General Assembly and New Jersey Legislature. The center administers subawards to partners, manages cooperative research contracts with entities such as BARDA (the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority), and competes for foundation grants from organizations like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Gates Foundation. Financial oversight aligns with standards from the Office of Management and Budget and audit practices familiar to recipients of HHS funding.

Impact assessments reference performance metrics used by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Government Accountability Office, including exercise after-action reports from collaborations with Hospital Preparedness Program coalitions, outcomes from training curricula co-developed with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and improvements in laboratory turnaround times measured against benchmarks used by the Association of Public Health Laboratories. External evaluations have been conducted in partnership with academic centers such as Rutgers School of Public Health and Perelman School of Medicine, while metrics for community resilience draw on frameworks from the Department of Homeland Security and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Category:Public health organizations in the United States