InFORM: an innovative, integrated food safety meeting.

S eptember is Food Safety Month, so this column provides the perfect op­ portunity to tell Journal of Environmen­ tal Health readers about an upcoming food safety meeting: the Integrated Foodborne Outbreak Response Management (InFORM) Meeting. Sponsored by several federal agen­ cies and national organizations, this meet­ ing emphasizes the integration of laborato­ rians, epidemiologists, and environmental health professionals to focus on foodborne disease surveillance and outbreak response. This integration is significant, as all three disciplines are integral to the successful sur­ veillance of and response to foodborne dis­ ease outbreaks. Each discipline represents a component of the host-agent-environment model of disease transmission, and each serves a critical role in foodborne disease surveillance and response activities (Figure 1). Foodborne disease outbreak surveillance and investigation are greatly enhanced when these three groups of professionals under­ stand the roles of each discipline, work in an integrated manner, and communicate well. This enhancement includes more rapid identification of and response to outbreaks and their causes.