Medical Schools and Teaching Hospitals Respond to Bioterrorism

Medical schools and teaching hospitals are preparing medical students, educating residents and physicians, and making research contributions that will prepare the nation for biological, radiation, and chemical terrorism.

Western Region

Arizona | California | Oregon | Utah | Washington

Arizona

University of Arizona Health Sciences Center

On September 11, 2002, the University of Arizona (UA) Department of Medicine will host a forum titled "Bioterrorism 2002: A One-Year Follow-Up." Although geared for health professionals, the public is invited and the forum will be broadcast on local cable television stations.

The Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center at UA has already trained more than 1,000 emergency responders on the medical management of patients with chemical, biological or nuclear exposure. UA's Advanced Hazmat Life Support Course will be presented in New York, Michigan, and Edmonton, Canada during September and October 2002.

On September 24, 2002, UA's Department of Emergency Medicine Grand Rounds will feature the director of emergency medical services at Bnai Zion Medical Center in Haifa, Israel—he will discuss his experiences with mass casualties resulting from a terrorist attack.

Contact: Katie Riley, Associate Director for Media and Community Relations, 520-626-4828

California

Stanford University

Stanford offers a course in microbiology and immunology called "Infectious Basis of Disease," which covers diseases including anthrax and smallpox, and discusses their uses as biological weapons.

Stanford recently formed a special task force on bioterrorism to develop a plan on assessing and treating patients exposed to anthrax and smallpox.

Contact: Ruthann Richter, Office of News and Public Affairs, 650-725-8047

University of California, Los Angeles

In response to the threat of bioterrorism the UCLA Medical Center has organized a Task Force on Bioterrorism Preparedness dedicated to educating its doctors and staff and coordinating an effective response.

The School of Public Health is developing a bioterrorism orientation course for emergency room and primary care physicians that offers an overview of bioterrorism agents and their clinical syndromes, as well as information on how to activate hospital labs and other public health authorities. This course is also available online. The School of Public Health is also planning a series of two-day seminars for public health department officials to orient them to the issues of mass population disasters and advise them on organizing resources within their departments.

In February 2002, the UCLA School of Medicine launched an Internet tutorial to educate the public about precautions and treatments for combating biological and chemical warfare.

Contact: Roxanne Yamaguchi Moster, Media Relations Director, 310-794-2264

University of California-San Francisco and Stanford University

The Collaborative Research Network, a joint venture between the University of California at San Francisco and Stanford University, is a network of 600 primary care physician practices in California that treat under-served, urban patient populations. Funded by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Collaborative Research Network will conduct research on medical clinician's preparedness for a bioterrorist event.

Contact: Alice Trinkl, News Director, 415-695-3833

Oregon

Oregon Health & Science University

Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) offers medical students an elective course in medical toxicology. This course includes the study of biological agents used in acts of terrorism. This course is a joint offering between the OHSU Emergency Department and the Oregon Poison Center.

Contact: Christine Pashley, Media Coordinator, 503-494-1360

Utah

University of Utah Health Sciences Center

Located in the host city for the 2002 Winter Olympics, the University of Utah was well prepared to respond to bioterrorist attacks even before September 11, 2001. The Health Sciences Center is located 40 miles from the Tooele Army Depot, site of the region's only operational chemical incinerator, and from Dugway Proving Grounds, where the U.S. Army studies the detection of biological warfare agents. Utah was the first state to publish guidelines for hospital response to chemical, biological, and radiological warfare.

Four members of University of Utah Hospital's Emergency Department were certified last March as trainers for the federal Technical Emergency Response Training course. The Emergency Department continually tests plans for operational security, use of personal protective equipment, decontamination, antidote administration and disaster preparedness. It also developed its own supplies for a bioterrorist attack, modeled after the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile. Four University Hospital staff and School of Medicine faculty members are on Utah's Bioterrorism Hospital Advisory Committee, which is determining how the state will use new federal funds.

At the School of Medicine, the first-year microbiology course was expanded last spring with an additional hour of discussion and longer list of biological agents discussed. This fall, third-year students are researching bioterrorism in case presentations. Fourth-year students in a redesigned public health class also are addressing bioterrorism.

Contact: Anne Brillinger, Director of Public Affairs, 801-581-7387

Washington

University of Washington, Seattle

Students and residents on rotation at the University of Washington Medical Center are part of the response team during quarterly disaster drills. One of these county-wide drills, conducted in October 2000, centered around a mock terrorist attack in which emergency crews responded to a mysterious chemical leak intended to injure local residents as well as rescue crews.

Standard public health responses to emerging critical infectious diseases in a population are part of the regular medical degree curriculum. Students taking the emergency medicine clerkship, however, obtain disaster response training.

The emergency medicine residency training program, jointly run by the Madigan Army Medical Center and the University of Washington Academic Medical Center, addresses disaster response and terrorism response training from both a military and civilian perspective.

Contact: Leila Gray, News and Community Relations, 206-685-0381

Updated: Nov. 2004

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