Long term Disaster Epidemiology: Problems and resilience 10 years after Katrina

Hurricane Katrina has left a lasting legacy on health and research on the Gulf Coast.  This session will explore the ongoing health effects of the storm.  One focus will be the trajectory of health effects following the storm, including both long-term detrimental and resilient trajectories, as well as other disasters that have hit the region: later hurricanes, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Presenters will address the methodological innovations (such as use of community health workers, CBPR, cultural analyses, and e-health interventions) and challenges presented by disaster epidemiology. Discussants will address what Katrina has taught us as epidemiologists and public health professionals, and to assess what topics are of importance in disaster epidemiology.  Given the extensive research following Katrina, 9/11, and other recent disasters, what sort of research should be planned for the future?  What kind of disaster epidemiology is really necessary?  Perhaps understudied are immediate and long-term effects of disaster, both of which are difficult logistically and due to current funding models.  How could these gaps be filled?