In the name of accountability, the World Health Organization (WHO) seems to be commissioning a 29-member external panel to examine how it addressed and managed the H1N1 swine-flu pandemic. H1N1 presented quite a scare to Americans and individuals around the world during the past year, and the disease’s presence is likely to remain for years to come. Several national governments and health regulatory agencies, including those in the US, took quick action to ensure that individuals had access to a swine-flu vaccine (see back story, “Swine Flu Update” and FDA’s end-of-year response to 2009 efforts ). The World Health Organization (WHO) also played a major role in the global response to the pandemic. Now, according to a story in the Canadian Press, a panel of experts is expected to spend 13 months reviewing and critiquing how WHO handled the situation.

Although the full list of panel names have not yet been released, the Canadian Press reports that WHO drew members from a list of country-nominated experts. The committee is charged with examining what went right and wrong during the emergence and spread of swine flu throughout the world, and the lessons learned from managing the pandemic. One critique, for example, has been that the disease outbreak was declared a “pandemic” too early on, or that it never should have reached that designation level. Another concern is that the pharma industry was too involved in decision-making. The panel’s report is expected to be presented to the 2011 World Health Assembly.

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) produced its own report of the United States’ handling of pandemics last November, ultimately recommending that the Homeland Security Council instruct the White House National Security Staff to help develop a monitoring and reporting process for action items at the nonfederal (i.e., state/local) level. GAO issued two other related reports in 2009, one on gaps in the federal pandemic preparedness plan and one on the need to protect federal workers when a pandemic strikes.

As a citizen and sometimes patient, I’m glad to see such interest at the federal and global level in finding out what may have gone wrong in a given situation and how to improve upon the management of the situation should a similar event occur in the future. It is unfortunate, however, that it will take 13 months to review the WHO’s response to the pandemic, especially considering that the official diagnosis of a swine-flu outbreak was first reported only 12 months ago.