Chemical agent simulator for emergency preparedness training.

For several years, the medical and public health communities have expressed concern over preparedness for terrorism attacks. In 1999, the Institute of Medicine recommended that simulation software be developed to provide interactive training for personnel involved in management of chemical or biological terrorism incidents [1]. A recent survey of 30 hospitals found that 73% were inadequately prepared for a chemical or nuclear event [2]. In a different survey of over 180 emergency departments, fewer than 20% of hospitals had plans of biological or chemical weapons events [3]. Waeckerle et al, [4] reported that adequate training is lacking in our current educational process for the target groups faced with a WMD incident. Moreover, local and state agencies remain illprepared to deal with bioterrorism. In the GAO analysis of seven cities, all indicated that their hospitals had an insufficient response training [5].