Peyman Karimian, my research assistant, recently examined Master the Disaster, which was created by the Center for Public Health Preparedness, an Advanced Practice Center at the DeKalb County (Georgia) Board of Health. Peyman provided the following review:
The software is disaster designer software which creates real scenarios of disasters such as Anthrax, Botulism, Hurricane, Pandemic Flu, Plague, RDD (Radiological Dispersal Device) and Smallpox. The goal of the software is to provide real scenarios of disasters in order for people who are involved in emergency preparedness to do some exercise in case of any unforeseen disaster and with this software improve their ability to face real scenarios and be able to handle the situation in a systematic, controllable way. Each scenario has some sections and questions which provides discussion, problem solving and decision making for those who are involved in the exercise. Participants should play the assigned roles and positions and make step by step decisions based on the disaster scenario.
In each disaster, an outbreak of a disease is recognized by complaining of a person in the Emergency Department with similar symptoms of the disaster. For an instance in the Anthrax scenario a 55 year old male arrives in the emergency department of the hospital with symptoms of fatigue, fever, cough and chest pain. He started having short breath, blue nails and higher fever. Clinical tests confirmed Anthrax and more people are infected with the virus. The Software helps to handle the situation by asking questions about how and to who share information about the disaster, activation procedure and staffing plan, agency’s plan as well as federal agency’s plans. Mass Clinics are set up and different agencies are collaborating to handle the situation. The software is also a good exercise for those who are involved how to deal with issues such as mass panic, chaos erupts and media that interferes with hospital operations.
Solutions are also offered for each disaster and long term effects are also discussed. Long term effects are including medication effects, economic downturns, increasing unemployment and other social issues are also discussed. Also demobilization after the event, environmental surety of affected areas are also considered in the software.
