Georgetown Business Conversations Explores Impact of H1N1 on the Workplace

Join the Conversation by Watching the Video and Commenting Online

Video from the latest Georgetown Business Conversations event is now online at http://msbmedia.org, and viewers are invited to watch the discussion on the impact of H1N1 (Swine) Flu on the workplace and then join the conversation by posting to the Web site.

The 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu has been called a young person's virus. Unlike most other strains of influenza, it is most prevalent, and dangerous, for 25-64 year-olds -- the group that makes up the vast majority of the global workforce. H1N1 has caused more deaths in three months than the seasonal flu did in the entire past year. How long will the outbreak continue, and how widespread will it be?

The video interview features Dr. Kenneth Dretchen of the Georgetown University Medical Center and Professor Lamar Reinsch of Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. Dretchen, who advises the Department of Health and Human Services, provides his opinion on the likely path and severity of the virus. How should businesses deal with their employees in the event of a mass H1N1 outbreak? Reinsch, an expert in crisis management and organizational communication, offers his take on the current situation and offers advice for employers on surviving and thriving during a pandemic.

Dretchen is the chairman and a professor within the Department of Pharmacology at the Georgetown University Medical Center. In addition, he is the senior associate vice president of regulatory affairs for Georgetown University School of Medicine (GUMC), as well as the former interim chief operations officer for GUMC. He is an expert on bioterrorism, nerve gas usage, nerve gas effects, bioterror detection, institutional review boards, and pharmacological research issues. He recently was a member of the team of experts that designed kits carried by the U.S. military for use in case of exposure to chemical weapons of mass destruction. He currently is an advisor to the U.S. government on the H1N1 virus.

Reinsch is a professor of management at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business and the director of Georgetown’s Executive Master’s in Leadership degree program. He frequently writes and speaks on issues of leadership, crisis management, and organizational communication. Reinsch is a former president of the Association for Business Communication and a fellow of that organization. He has received a number of awards for research and teaching, including the Alpha Kappa Psi award for a distinguished publication in business communication and the Outstanding Teacher award in the Georgetown Campus Global Executive MBA program. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Business Communication.

Georgetown Business Conversations seeks to illuminate complex issues facing today’s business world through the sharing of information from leading scholars, practitioners, and policy makers. A key component of the series will be interaction from individuals who view the discussions online and post opinions, comments, reactions, and questions to the site. Georgetown Business Conversations will be held throughout the academic year.