September 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 9 |
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• Resident & Student News •
How do you coax family practice residents and medical students to learn what they should do in case of a bioterrorist attack? You make it personal.
That's exactly what the presenters of "Bioterrorism: Are You Prepared for Your Role?" did July 31 at the National Conference of Family Practice Residents and Medical Students.
Stephen Markovich, M.D., assistant director at the Riverside Family Practice Residency, Columbus, Ohio, and a former chem/biowarfare specialist for the U.S. Air Force, briefly recapped last fall's anthrax attacks.
"This was real," Markovich said. "This was serious. This affected every hospital in the country and every practicing physician."
Since last October, he said, physicians' interest in bioterrorism preparedness seems to be waning. "I want you to understand the essential importance of bioterrorism," Markovich said. "I want you to have a fundamental understanding of bioterrorism and your role as a family physician."
Part of filling that role is learning to view apparently mundane medical details in a new light, explained co-presenter Mrunal Shah, M.D., also assistant director at the residency program. Shah reviewed the biological agents considered by the CDC as the most likely candidates for weaponization.
FPs must be vigilant for signs and symptoms of the illnesses caused by these pathogens, Shah said, and they must be able to differentiate relatively benign from more sinister disease profiles. "It requires awareness on our part because we're out in the trenches," he said. "We're the ones who are going to see it."
Finally, it was Riverside Family Practice Residency Director Edward Bope, M.D., who "put the pedal to the metal," setting up bioterrorism scenarios both at home and abroad. In each instance, attendees had to consider several topics: patient care, general hospital/clinic operations, communication strategies, security and safety issues, and education and training opportunities.
Group members came up with exhaustive plans to address these areas. Specifics included creating patient triage schemes, establishing communications systems capable of reaching and reassuring the public, instigating measures to safeguard facilities' power supplies and other resources, and developing methods to measure the effectiveness of care teams' response.
Above all, warned Markovich, don't make the mistake of perceiving this as merely an intellectual exercise with no basis in reality.
"We think this is an extremely important workshop," he said. "In fact, if something like this were to happen tomorrow, this might be the most important workshop you ever attend."
FP Report is published by the
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Copyright © 2002 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.