The application of supply chain management principles to emergency management logistics: An empirical study.

Key elements of supply chain theory remain relevant to emergency management (EM) logistics activities. The Supply Chain Operations Reference model can also serve as a useful template for the planning, organizing, and execution of EM logistics. Through a series of case studies (developed through intensive survey of organizations and individuals responsible for EM), the authors identified the extent supply chain theory is being adopted and whether the theory was useful for emergency logistics managers. The authors found several drivers that influence the likelihood of an organization to implement elements of supply chain management: the frequency of events, organizational resources, population density, range of events, and severity of the disaster or emergency.

Emergency management logistics must become emergency supply chain management.

Much has been written about how emergency management (EM) needs to look to the future regarding issues of resource management (monetary, human, and material). Constraints on budgets are ongoing and the staffing of emergency response activities is often difficult because volunteers have little to no training. The management of material resources has also been a challenge because 1) the categories of material vary by the type of emergency, 2) the necessary quantities of material are often not located near the ultimate point of need, and 3) the transportation assets are rarely available in the form and quantity required to allow timely and effective response. The logistics and resource management functions of EM (what we refer to as EM logistics) have been largely reactive, with little to no pre-event planning for potential demand. We applied the Supply Chain Operational Reference (SCOR) model to EM logistics in an effort to transform it to an integrated and scalable system of physical, information, and financial flows into which are woven the functions of sourcing, making, delivering, and returning, with an overarching planning function that transcends the organizational boundaries of participants. The result is emergency supply chain management, which embraces many more participants who share in a larger quantity of more useful information about the resources that need to be deployed when responding to and recovering from emergency events.

Overview of the legal framework applicable to the marker method for the detection of human growth hormone.

The world of doping and anti-doping in sport is an ongoing race between those who want to gain a performance advantage by using prohibited substances or methods and those who want to keep the sport clean. Sophisticated doping often involves substances that are difficult to detect, which presents both scientific and legal challenges for implementing new detection methods. This article provides an overview of legal considerations in anti-doping procedures that may apply to the use of the marker method for the detection of Human Growth Hormone. In cases where the blood markers IGF-1 and P-III-P indicate use of exogenous growth hormone, reference to positivity criteria and laboratory uncertainty measurements would assist anti-doping adjudicative bodies in concluding, to their comfortable satisfaction, that a positive test has been established. Use of established positivity criteria and laboratory uncertainty measurements place the application of the marker method for growth hormone within the existing, accepted legal framework for evaluating an Adverse Analytical Finding.