This conference represents the final milestone of a multi-annual international cooperative project, called HEALTHREATS, which has been coordinated by ASL Brescia and partly-financed within the Public Health programme, run by the European Commission, represented at this final event by Germain Thynus, officer from the Directorate General for Health and Consumers.

The HEALTHREATS project has aimed at enhancing the capability of health institutions in Europe to respond efficiently and in a co-ordinated manner to threats to health; focussing in particular on influenza pandemic preparedness and response.

HEALTHREATS has managed to develop an integrated package, including modelling processes, an innovative Decision Support System and a structured training plan and training material for Crisis Management in the context of health threats.
The project findings have been developed and tested in Italy, Slovenia, Romania, Spain and investigated also in Portugal, although the outcomes are intended to be generic, customisable, adaptable and transferable to other regions in Europe.

The project findings and major outcomes were presented in detail in this conference, through contributions and presentations from the HEALTHREATS partners, witnessing of the successful demonstration of how distributed procedures, the availability of effective tools and the development of competent and well-trained professional resources can result in an integrated and effective response to critical health threats, at local, regional, national and European level.