ABSTRACT
Delivering detection, diagnostic, and treatment information to first responders remains a central challenge in disaster management. This is particularly true in biomedical emergencies involving highly infectious agents. Adding inexpensive, established information technologies to existing response system will produce beneficial outcomes. In some instances, however, emerging technologies will be necessary to enable an immediate, continuous response. This article identifies and describes new training, education, and simulation technologies that will help first responders cope with bioterrorist events. The September 11 Commission report illuminated many of the errors leading to Al Qaeda’s dramatic attacks in New York and Washington, DC Among them was a well-documented failure to coordinate intelligence within the federal bureaucracy. Yet the greatest failure noted by the Commissioners was a failure of policy — a failure of imagination [1]. Federal, state, and local officials must avoid similar myopia in working to secure the
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homeland. Responding to future attacks with Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear or Explosive (CBRNE) agents is one area where imagination and innovation will be necessary.
