We are here today with Dr. Aaron Fleischauer, who is the Captain
in the United States Public Health service.
Welcome. Thank you for having me.
Thank you.
Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you working now?
Sure. Well I've been with CDC for over 12 years now.
And now for the last, let's see, it's been about six years;
I've been assigned to the North Carolina Division
of Public health as a career Epidemiology Field Officer.
But you got your start here as an EIS officer, right?
Yeah. So what made you decide to go into EIS which is also known
as the Epidemic Intelligence Service?
Right. Yeah, well even
in graduate school I knew about EIS.
There had been graduates from UNC Chapel Hill
who had gone into the program.
I was always fascinated with CDC.
So I knew from early on, I wanted to do EIS.
And when I sent in my application,
I had my first interview with Dr. Thacker
and I think I exploded with excitement in his office
because he kept laughing at me.
So I had known for a long time I wanted to do EIS.
So this is sort of a fulfillment
of a long term dream for you .Exactly.
Yeah. Now when you came to CDC
and you became an EIS officer what program did you work with?
Well, I had interviewed with a lot of programs
as we do during the match process and I was selected
with the bioterrorism preparedness
and response program.
Which I don't think exists in its current capacity anymore,
but that program was essentially designed
to do outbreak response, due consultations
on bioterrorism preparedness, Syndromic surveillance.
So I was with them for two years.
So if you think back on that two years you spent in that program,
what were some of the most memorable outbreaks you
worked on?
Right. Well, that was an exciting time.
It was 2002 to 2004.
So within a few weeks, I deployed for West Nile virus.
And then a few months later it was monkey pox outbreak.
A few months after that it was SARS, and then about six months
after that it was Avian Influenza.
So it was an exciting two years.
So you were busy.
Yeah. We worked together at least two
of those responses...We did...monkey pox and SARS.
And we worked in a part of CDC called the EOC.
Do a lot of EIS officers get to work there?
Well historically, no.
But now, absolutely.
The EOC is always developed itself
to be the support program for responses.
A lot EIS officers filter through there
and conduct their responses to the EOC.
It's an exciting opportunity to see that excitement
of a response, and what's all involved in that.
And we should say EOC stands for Emergency Operations Center.
And it's really the hub of current outbreaks.
And it's going on right now with the Ebola response.
Yeah, that's right.
How did EIS influence your future career path?
Yeah. Well, I think EIS taught me how
to be applied epidemiologist, I think coming
out of graduate school getting your PHD in epidemiology,
you think you know epidemiology.
You know how to be an academic epidemiologist.
When you do EIS you learn applied epi
and it's almost a different field all to itself.
You learn how to interact in the field with patients,
with healthcare providers, with local health departments,
how to collect that data yourself locally and use it
to inform an immediate decision.
And that's not something they can teach you
in graduate school.
So really hands in the field,
boots on the ground, learning as you go.
Exactly. Shoe leather.
Is absolutely what I loved about EIS myself.
Now EIS has changed a bit since we did it, way back when.
What do you think the future holds for the EIS program?
Well I think it should always hold
onto its fundamentals of shoe leather.
Teach people what is the transition
between academic epidemiology and field epidemiology.
I think once they learn those basic skills,
then they can do any field they want at CDC.
Now, I think in the future, it involves more technology.
Public health informatics is going to be huge,
social networks and social media will be huge,
so I think you'll find technology emerging
into the EIS fellowship,
but I think fundamentally once you learn those basic field
epidemiology skills, it should hold onto that paradigm.
So, one final question for you.
It's been lovely talking to you by the way.
Do you have any words of advice for people who think they might
like to apply to the EIS program?
Right. If you think you're interested
in public health, epidemiology.
If you think you want to change behaviors,
you want to change people, you want to make them healthier
and have an immediate impact,
I think EIS is an excellent fellowship opportunity for you.
I've done many outbreak responses,
I've worked on programs that I really feel
that I made an immediate impact almost if you think
of John Snow, removing the pump handle
and ending a cholera outbreak.
Sometimes I feel we have that opportunity
and that is tremendously rewarding experience.
That's a great note to end on.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you for having me.
It's been a pleasure talking to you.
Thanks, Jennie.
Thanks. Goodbye .Bye.