Division of Medical Countermeasures Strategy and Requirements
The MCSR Requirements Branch leads the development and management of scenario-based analyses, integrated capabilities documents, research requirements, and product-specific requirements documents, all of which are tied to assessments of risks to national health security. The Branch manages the requirement-setting process with engagement from subject matter experts, including experts in medical consequence and public health response assessments, from throughout the
Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise (PHEMCE). A lean requirements framework was designed and implemented for the PHEMCE, enabling increased throughput of these high-priority MCM requirement deliverables.
Developing Requirements for Critical Medical Countermeasures Against Natural and Intentional Threats
The requirement process provides critical information to support PHEMCE leadership in the allocation of limited resources for research, development, acquisition, stockpiling, and planning for the use of medical countermeasures (MCMs). This process informs PHEMCE partner acquisition and research strategies and contracts.
Figure: Overlap of the Requirements and Acquisitions Processes
MCSR administers and leads
PHEMCE Integrated Program Teams and Working Groups in support of generating requirement documents to recommend specific MCM categories, MCM product characteristics, and stockpiling goals. Scenario Based Analyses detail the critical types of MCMs desired, and the number of people who would benefit from MCMs during public health emergencies. Integrated Capabilities Documents describe the core capabilities required of the medical and public health system and project the quantity of MCMs that could be used effectively in the types of scenarios considered. Product Specific Requirements describe the desired product profiles, recommend a stockpiling goal, and contribute to the development of acquisition strategies for stockpiling MCMs. Research Requirements describe characteristics of future medical countermeasures for threat areas where there are very few products available, and these Research Requirements guide product research in those threat areas.
Prior to making individual investment recommendations, the PHEMCE assesses MCM needs across the entire threat portfolio through prioritization discussions including the Strategic National Stockpile Annual Review — weighing scientific opportunity, available resources, and other factors — consistent with the PHEMCE prioritization framework provided in the
2012 PHEMCE Strategy and Implementation Plan.