Dr. Meinhardt has received board certification from the American Board of Preventive Medicine and the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners. She completed her medical training at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania followed by an internship in Internal Medicine at the Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. She completed her residency training in Preventive Medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. She also received a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins with specialty training in occupational and environmental epidemiology. Prior to her medical training, Dr. Meinhardt worked as an environmental scientist participating in both air and water pollution investigations that emphasized the use of primary pollution indicators as diagnostic signs of environmental pollution in the United States.

Dr. Meinhardt has provided technical assistance and medical consultation to numerous local, state, and national organizations and agencies in both the private and public sector over the past 15 years regarding the health consequences of water-related disease. She has chaired and moderated a number of medical conferences addressing the health effects of water pollution resulting from both microbial and chemical contamination. She has also provided continuing medical education training to medical and public health professionals regarding the recognition, treatment, and prevention of water-related disease with a special emphasis on susceptible populations most at risk for serious morbidity. Dr. Meinhardt has published several chapters and journal articles on waterborne disease, water pollution, and water terrorism and acts as a peer reviewer of submitted water-related manuscripts for Emerging Infectious Diseases published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She authored a major chapter on water quality management and waterborne disease from microbial and chemical water pollution that was published in Public Health and Preventive Medicine considered an authoritative reference text in preventive medicine. Dr. Meinhardt also published a major review of the public health consequences of waterborne Cryptosporidium in the American Journal of Epidemiology: Epidemiologic Reviews. By invitation, she acts as the subject matter expert on waterborne disease, water pollution, and disaster preparedness for water contamination events for the Responder Knowledge Base sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security and Office of Domestic Preparedness and the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism.

Since 9/11, Dr. Meinhardt has participated as a medical expert on several private and governmental review committees addressing physician preparedness, disaster response strategies, and infrastructure protection including water safety and security. Dr. Meinhardt has received funding from and worked in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, American College of Preventive Medicine, and the American Water Works Association to provide education to healthcare practitioners concerning the recognition, treatment, and prevention of water-related disease resulting from natural disasters, man-made accidents, and intentional contamination of water. In addition, Dr. Meinhardt has provided disaster preparedness, threat assessment, consequence management, and waterborne disease recognition training to 19,500 medical and public health practitioners, emergency response and disaster management professionals, public safety officers and government officials, and public infrastructure specialists throughout the US and Canada over the past 5 years. She has also developed and delivered a series of disaster scenario exercises addressing the management of water contamination events resulting from natural, man-made, and intentional contamination of water.

Dr. Meinhardt has authored Recognizing Waterborne Disease and the Health Effects of Water Pollution: A Physician On-Line Reference Guide accessible at: http://www.WaterHealthConnection.org and Physician Preparedness for Acts of Water Terrorism: A Physician On-Line Readiness Guide accessible at http://www.waterhealthconnection.org/bt. These on-line medical reference guides provide comprehensive resources for healthcare providers and other disaster management professionals faced with recognizing and managing water-related disease in their communities. In the past five years, the medical website has received more than 10 million hits for information from over 350,000 visitors located in 89 countries. More than 425 organizations have highlighted and incorporated this medical website as a waterborne disease medical reference guide including the American Medical Association, American College of Preventive Medicine, American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, with sponsorship from the American College of Preventive Medicine, Dr. Meinhardt developed a total of 44.5 On-line Continuing Medical Education Credits (CME) and Maintenance of Certification Credits (MOC) for review of the content of Recognizing Waterborne Disease and the Health Effects of Water Pollution: A Physician On-Line Reference Guide (22 CME credit hours) and Physician Preparedness for Acts of Water Terrorism: A Physician Online Readiness Guide (22.5 CME credit hours).

Page last modified on April 10, 2011