October 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 10 |
Terrorism CME session goes liveTo check out the latest addition to the Academy's bioterrorism Web site, go to http://www.aafp.org/btresponse.xml and click on "bioterrorism audio CME." This combined audiotape/text presentation covers numerous issues related to the FP's role in recognizing and responding appropriately to bioterrorism. Members may earn up to .75 hour of Prescribed CME credit at no cost by completing this activity. |
Three out of four family physicians surveyed last fall reported they were not prepared to respond to a bioterrorist attack. Although 95 percent said they considered bioterrorism to be a real threat in the United States, only 27 percent thought the U.S. health care system could respond effectively.
Findings from the study, conducted by the AAFP National Network for Family Practice and Primary Care Research and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Center for Primary Care Research, appeared in the September Journal of Family Practice.
"The results of the study are a call to action," said John Hickner, M.D., director of AAFP's national research network. "It is important to remember the timing of the survey. It was sent to family physicians after Sept. 11 and during the anthrax mailings, when there was a heightened awareness of bioterrorism. Had the survey been sent six months earlier, we may have received completely different results."
The survey was first sent to 976 FPs last October, just before the initial case of inhalation anthrax was reported in Florida. After two follow-up mailings, a total of 614 FPs (63 percent) responded.
Twenty-six percent of respondents said they would know what to do in case of a bioterrorist attack, compared with 65 percent who said they would know what to do in the event of a natural disaster and 66 percent who reported knowing what to do during an infectious disease outbreak.
Only 24 percent of FPs surveyed thought they could recognize signs and symptoms of bioterrorism-related illness in their patients. And while 93 percent of survey respondents said they report notifiable infectious disease cases to the health department, only 57 percent said they would know whom to call to report a suspected bioterrorist attack.
| John Hickner, M.D. "The results of the study are a call to action." |
Previous bioterrorism training was significantly associated with knowing how to respond appropriately to an attack. However, fewer than one in five FPs reported having received such training.
The study acknowledged the critical role primary care physicians play in the public health response to bioterrorism and made specific educational recommendations to help them meet that challenge. "As the public health infrastructure is improved through increased funding, it should integrate training for front-line primary care physicians in detection, surveillance and response activities," the study read. It went on to note that AAFP has already made forays into promoting Web-based bioterrism training through its http://www.aafp.org/btresponse.xml site.
Results from the study have served to inform the Academy's efforts to develop targeted CME programming on bioterrorism, said Herbert Young, M.D., director of the Scientific Activities Division. Other significant fallout from the study is that the AAFP national research network this summer applied for a five-year AHRQ grant to develop a National Bioterrorism Sentinel Surveillance and Education Network. As of press time, no response on that proposal had been received.
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Copyright © 2002 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.