Disaster and Recovery: The Importance of Risk Assessment and Contingency Planning for Biobanks

Over the past several years major man-made and natural disasters have been reported, affecting biobanks at a higher prevalence than ever before. This increase may be due to better accounting of incidents but is also due to an escalation in frequency of significant natural catastrophes. In February 2011, a series of earthquakes shook Christchurch, New Zealand, almost completely destroying the Cancer Society tissue biobank infrastructure; in May 2012, a freezer malfunction at a Harvard-affiliated hospital in Boston damaged a considerable portion of the world's largest research collection of brains from autism patients; and in October 2012, Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the East Coast of the United States, severely crippling the general infrastructure in several biobanks in the metropolitan New York area. These examples are a few of the events that remind us that disaster and contingency planning for biobanks is an important operational and financial element for effective stewardship. A very successful session dedicated to this particular topic was held during the May 2012 ISBER Annual Meeting & Exhibits in Vancouver, BC. To expand on the themes of this session, we were invited to organize a collection of peer-reviewed papers and Expert Speaks editorials that will be the focus of the August Issue of Biopreservation and Biobanking.

There is an ever increasing array of risks facing biobanks, including natural (meteorological, geological, or biological), human (accidental or intentional), and technological (power, telecommunications, hardware, and software). Awareness of the potential for risk in biobanking and creating contingency plans is a core competency we must all adopt.

Risk assessment and mitigation specifically adapted for the location and environment of the biobank is an integral part of developing a detailed contingency plan. Biobankers are well advised to create a contingency plan to prevent or at least mitigate disasters, and to assist in recovery from the consequences of disasters. Disaster recovery plans include the availability of the right monitoring equipment, backup systems for storage and data, and redundant spare parts and supplies; testing of standby equipment; on-call staffing; ; quality control and safety plans; tested standard operating procedures for each of the risk scenarios; and financial plans and insurance. The consequences of being ill-prepared can be catastrophic, and costly in terms of economic impact and time required to rebuild. Modern biobanking requires a larger upfront financial investment in the infrastructure, as well as a sustainable source of funding to maintain quality operations. A quality biobank stands on three pillars: the number of biospecimens; the quality of the collection and storage; and the amount and richness of the associated stored data. Therefore, today's modern biobanks need quality collection and management, as well as scalable storage for specimens and data. New technologies are being deployed in biobanks, including automated equipment for collection and a wide array of downstream processing of samples and storage. With these emerging technologies, the start-up costs of biobanks are increasing and the substantial physical infrastructure must be protected by contingency planning. Whilst insurance policies that cover infrastructure, including equipment, tools and the biobank building may be standard for insurance companies across the globe, they cannot fully insure the precious biospecimens and data stored within the biobank. Many collections are “invaluable” due to the inability to recollect the samples at a later time point. Some may argue that biospecimens are priceless, but understanding how to value collections for insurance purposes is important to allow for recovery from disasters. A thoroughly conducted risk assessment and contingency plan can be used to define insurance premiums, not only for the infrastructure and equipment, but also for the biospecimens and data. Additionally exploring and understanding the value of a biobank could be advantageous for academic biobanks when applying for funding. This valuation exercise should be part of a standard business assessment for industry biobanks.

A biobank may also play an active role in supporting research into the consequences of man-made or natural disasters. Biobanks must have standard operating procedures to allow staff to react immediately to collect and store biospecimens and data at a disaster site. An example of this type of response was seen when biobanks were called to support the collection of environmental and biological specimens and data associated with the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Immediate, systematic and periodically repeated collection of biospecimens and data will help to assess the long term damage caused by this disaster, as well as aid in the environmental recovery. Biobanks played a less immediate, but still very important role after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. Traditionally, many Scandinavian citizens vacation during the Christmas holidays in the area most devastated by the tsunami. Many of the deceased could only be identified with the help of biospecimens stored in local biobanks in their home countries.

In conclusion, the question is not “will the biobank be hit by a disaster” but “will the biobank be ready when a disaster occurs?” An up-to-date risk assessment and contingency plan should mostly prevent, or at least minimize, the consequences of a likely event. As a community, we can learn valuable lessons from each other. Biobankers faced with any kind of natural or man-made disaster should be encouraged to report their experience and its outcome. With more events occurring annually, Biopreservation and Biobanking is an ideal journal for such a “Disaster Recovery Reports” section. We encourage you to read the August 2013 issue of Biopreservation and Biobanking, which will be dedicated specifically to various types of disasters, the contingency plans that were in place, and the lessons that were learned from successful recoveries and catastrophic failures.