title: Scientists urge DHS to improve Bioterrorism Risk Assessment.
abstract: In 2006, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) completed its first Bioterrorism Risk Assessment (BTRA), intended to be the foundation for DHS's subsequent biennial risk assessments mandated by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 10 (HSPD-10). At the request of DHS, the National Research Council established the Committee on Methodological Improvements to the Department of Homeland Security's Biological Agent Risk Analysis to provide an independent, scientific peer review of the BTRA. The Committee found a number of shortcomings in the BTRA, including a failure to consider terrorists as intelligent adversaries in their models, unnecessary complexity in threat and consequence modeling and simulations, and a lack of focus on risk management. The Committee unanimously concluded that an improved BTRA is needed to provide a more credible foundation for risk-informed decision making.
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Engineering, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York 10996, USA. gregory.parnell@usma.edu
authors.forename: Gregory S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Parnell
authors.forename: Luciana L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Borio
authors.forename: Gerald G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Banks
authors.forename: Alyson G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D001519:Behavior; D023482:Bioterrorism; D006077:Government Agencies; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D012308:Risk Management; D014481:United States