National Security and Emergency Management

ORISE prepares DOE and other government agencies by managing and conducting programs, studies, research, exercises and training related to national security and emergency preparedness.

Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site

ORISE provides expertise in the medical management of radiation incidents through the operation of the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS), a dedicated DOE facility located in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Worker Health Studies

ORISE provides DOE and the scientific community with important information regarding the long-term health outcomes affecting current and former energy workers.

Health Communication and Training

ORISE collaborates with federal, state and local agencies to provide health communication and training solutions that enhance the well-being of the public and the nation’s workers.

Scientific Peer Review

ORISE manages a credible and customizable peer review process that is helping DOE and other government agencies make informed decisions about the quality of the science they pursue.

University Radioactive Ion Beam Consortium

The University Radioactive Ion Beam (UNIRIB) consortium consists of eight member universities that partner to perform basic nuclear physics research using the fast-growing technique of radioactive ion beams.

Scientific Research Opportunities

ORISE manages research participation programs at the undergraduate, graduate, post-graduate and faculty levels at DOE and other government facilities across the United States.

Climate and Atmospheric Research

Through the Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, ORISE works closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to perform research focused on air quality, contaminant dispersion and climate.

Environmental Assessments and Health Physics

ORISE instills confidence in environmental cleanup through survey assessments, health physics evaluations and hands-on, laboratory-based training in the radiation sciences.

Climate and Atmospheric Research

Through the Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, ORISE works closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to perform air quality, contaminant dispersion and climate research.

Health Physics

Through Oak Ridge Associated Universities, ORISE's managing contractor, health physics and radiation safety training courses are offered for participants performing work in the radiation sciences.

Radiation Emergency Medicine

Continuing education courses taught through the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS) at ORISE focus on radiation emergency medicine and the medical management of radiation incidents.

Emergency Preparedness

ORISE emergency planners train government agencies on how to build effective response and preparedness plans, as well as teach best practices to improve communication among emergency response teams.

Health Communication and Training

ORISE develops training and education programs designed to address public health topics. Training is delivered via e-learning, multimedia applications and traditional classroom instruction.

Health Communication

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How ORISE is Making a Difference

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Oak Ridge Institute for Science Education

How ORISE is Making a Difference

AutoINFORM: Analyzing Emerging Health Issues

Since 2001, the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) has partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) to help monitor messages through media analysis, which allows the CDC to more quickly respond to the most pressing health issues.

ORISE’s AutoINFORM—a media analysis program—is used to monitor news articles, blogs and Web content related to health concerns and codes the information at 100 times the speed of humans.

On average, ORISE tracks, codes and analyzes more than 17,000 articles daily, monitoring 1,400+ news resources and 1,000+ blogs.

From the results, ORISE uncovers media interest and public perceptions of an issue, evaluates the effectiveness of media efforts and then benchmarks for success.

In addition to NCIRD, ORISE has also partnered with the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health to track, code and analyze 75 to 100 articles daily from selected national and local newspapers, television networks and news wires.

Trade journals are also included for coding and analysis, as well as the ability to evaluate the reliability of the coding scheme.

AutoINFORM will soon use a listserv to deliver a variety of topic reports via e-mail. Additionally, the tool will undergo further enhancement that will include the monitoring, coding and analysis of health messages from social networks like Twitter.