TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving public health emergency preparedness through enhanced decision-making environments
T2 - A simulation and survey based evaluation
AU - Araz, Ozgur M.
AU - Jehn, Megan
N1 - Funding Information:
We are very thankful to the Arizona Department of Health Services for the support of our exercise program, and to Yavapai, Cochise and Mohave County Health Departments for completing the surveys. These activities are sponsored by University of Minnesota: Simulation and Exercises for Educational Effectiveness (U-SEEE), supported in part by cooperative agreement number 5p01TP000301-02 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) . The views presented do not necessarily reflect the official policies of CDC. U-SEE Principal Investigator: Debra K. Olson.
PY - 2013/11
Y1 - 2013/11
N2 - Public health emergency preparedness officials use several modes of education and training programs to improve their response capability, including tabletop exercises. Tabletop exercises allow participants to role-play during a health emergency in an experiential practice environment and evaluate performance using existing benchmarks. Although tabletop exercises are routinely used in public health to identify gaps in emergency planning, quantitative measures of the impact of participating in an exercise are less common. To this end, we have designed a state-of-the-art simulation-driven hybrid tabletop exercise which is informed by local leadership interests and options, and tied into a research platform that enables rigorous assessment and improvements. The exercise and assessment were used by the state of Arizona during the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak. The simulation allows participants to respond to a hypothetical pandemic influenza scenario and make iterative policy decisions in a group setting. The exercise provided a valuable forum reviewing and assessing emergency plans for schools to prepare for, respond to, and recover from an influenza pandemic. After the exercise, participants reported a significantly increased level of confidence in performing core public health functional capabilities around the five main topic areas.
AB - Public health emergency preparedness officials use several modes of education and training programs to improve their response capability, including tabletop exercises. Tabletop exercises allow participants to role-play during a health emergency in an experiential practice environment and evaluate performance using existing benchmarks. Although tabletop exercises are routinely used in public health to identify gaps in emergency planning, quantitative measures of the impact of participating in an exercise are less common. To this end, we have designed a state-of-the-art simulation-driven hybrid tabletop exercise which is informed by local leadership interests and options, and tied into a research platform that enables rigorous assessment and improvements. The exercise and assessment were used by the state of Arizona during the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak. The simulation allows participants to respond to a hypothetical pandemic influenza scenario and make iterative policy decisions in a group setting. The exercise provided a valuable forum reviewing and assessing emergency plans for schools to prepare for, respond to, and recover from an influenza pandemic. After the exercise, participants reported a significantly increased level of confidence in performing core public health functional capabilities around the five main topic areas.
KW - Decision making
KW - Emergency preparedness
KW - Exercises
KW - Public health
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U2 - 10.1016/j.techfore.2012.09.018
DO - 10.1016/j.techfore.2012.09.018
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84885025610
SN - 0040-1625
VL - 80
SP - 1775
EP - 1781
JO - Technological Forecasting and Social Change
JF - Technological Forecasting and Social Change
IS - 9
ER -