Dr. Peter Katona
Dr. Peter Katona is a nationally recognized expert in infectious diseases and bioterrorism, and how each can impact the private and public sectors. He has edited two books: Countering Terrorism and WMD, and Global Biosecurity: Threats and Responses. A book on the vulnerability of the health care system to disasters is in progress.
He is a clinical professor of medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine as well as an Adjunct Professor of Public Health at the Fielding School of Public health at UCLA. He teaches an undergraduate Honors seminar at UCLA on public and private responses to terrorism.
Dr. Katona’s recent work synthesizes his understanding of effective disease surveillance and response with evolving technology. In July 2012, he implemented a short message service (SMS) biosurveillance system to streamline disease reporting in 20 commune clinics in Vietnam. The project allowed healthcare workers at health stations to directly report disease activity to a central data repository using their mobile phones on an intuitive, user-friendly platform. A visit to Vietnam in June 2013 upscaled the project to 46 clinics and added a number of new software features.
The impetus to use the democratizing nature of technology to resolve health care access disparities arose from Katona’s appointment at Louisiana State University’s National Center for Biomedical Research and Training. He teaches two courses for LSU: a course on bioterrorism and a course on community preparedness for medical disasters.
As the Corporate Medical Director for Apria Healthcare, Katona studies industry best practices and supply chains, including the health care business’ public responses to attack or disaster. He has worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer studying viral diseases and doing epidemic investigation in the US and abroad.
He has been a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s National and Global Public Health Committee, the Pacific Council on International Policy’s National Security Committee, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He has served on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee. He has served as Chairman of the UCLA Hospital Infection Control Committee. He has authored articles on medical informatics, medical education, influenza, polio, nutrition, bioterrorism, disasters, and the future of health care. He also maintains a private practice in infectious diseases and internal medicine in Los Angeles.
pkatona@mac.com
Recent media appearances:
“What You Should Know About the Ebola Virus”
Tavis Smiley Show
Oct. 10, 2014
“Ebola Screening A Logistical Nightmare, Says Epidemiologist”
Forbes magazine
Oct. 9, 2014