The NYC Health Department's Reflections on First-Ever Public Health Deployments in Support of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands After the 2017 Hurricane Season.

In late 2017 and early 2018, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene deployed multiple teams to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands to support public health in those territories. This article is a description of how those teams were conceived, deployed, supported, and reintegrated into the agency. This was an unprecedented mission for our agency, and what follows is a reflection on what worked and what didn't work for us. It is our hope that other jurisdictions can use this information to organize and execute similar missions in the future, and that collectively we can continue to advance the field of public health preparedness and response.