How to deal with bioterrorism

A number of upstate New York emergency workers will know how to deal with bioterrorism, thanks to a federal grant to develop a model bioterrorist response system designed to teach ambulance, firefighter, police and hospital workers.

Monroe County, one of only three counties in the nation piloting the bioterrorism training funded by Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, is developing a four-course online program with the expertise of online learning at Rochester Institute of Technology.

The first course, Bioterrorism: The Traditional Incident Command System for the Non-traditional Responder, begins August 13 and is open to non-traditional emergency responders, such as nurses and physicians working in emergency departments.

Each course, lasting about four weeks, will be lead by a facilitator and will incorporate interactivity between the students. About 30 students will pilot the first course and are eligible to receive continuing medical education credits. The courses are offered free through the Monroe County Department of Public Health.

The remaining three course modules are Bioterrorism 101, How Public Health Emergencies Differ from Traditional Emergencies, and Management of Public Health Emergencies. They will begin to be deployed later this year and will all be available in 2002.

The target audience for the courses ranges from public health officials and workers in emergency departments to traditional first responders, such as police, fire and EMTs.

Monroe County was chosen to receive the grant funding to develop a model bioterrorist response system as it already has in place an excellent network between emergency response agencies, (police, fire stations, hospitals).

Monroe County also chose RIT because of online learning's ability to incorporate interactivity into the learning experience.