CDC Provides New Resources on Terrorist Bombings, Injury Patterns
The CDC's Division of Injury Response has released a new course available on the Web. Designed to provide the latest clinical information regarding blast-related injuries from terrorism, the course--"Bombings: Injury Patterns and Care"-- is available in multiple formats. A CD-ROM/Web-based interactive version is planned for release later this month and will be distributed free of charge to first responders. The program is supported by CDC's Terrorism Injuries Information, Dissemination and Exchange (TIIDE) Project. TIIDE was established through a cooperative agreement to link acute care and emergency medical services to state and local injury prevention programs for terrorism preparedness and response. For more information about the course and TIIDE, visit http://www.bt.cdc.gov/masscasualties/bombings_injurycare.asp.
In a related category, the CDC has also released a free report entitled "In a Moment's Notice: Surge Capacity for Terrorist Bombings," which describes system-wide, discipline-specific challenges in a mass casualty event and provides recommendations to address those challenges.
In October 2005 and January 2006, CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control convened an expert panel that included professionals in the areas of emergency medical services, emergency medicine, trauma surgery, burn surgery, pediatrics, otolaryngology, intensive care medicine, hospital medicine, radiology, pharmacology, nursing, hospital administration, laboratory medicine (blood bank), and public health.
The panel was charged with identifying creative strategies that could be adopted in a timely manner to address surge issues from terrorism. "In a Moment's Notice" is the result of those expert panel meetings, reflecting the opinions and recommendations of the experts. The proposed solutions for the discipline-specific challenges have been incorporated into easy to use templates that can assist various disciplines in managing surge needs for injuries. To obtain the free report, visit http://www.bt.cdc.gov/masscasualties/surgecapacity.asp.