Impact of Screensaver and WebBased Weapons of Mass Destruction WMD Education: October 2001December 2

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Impact of Screensaver and Web-Based Weapons of
Mass Destruction (WMD) Education October
2001-December 2003

• Carrie Barton MD

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GOAL

• to determine the efficacy of an approach that
  would
• Streamline healthcare professionals educational
  time requirements
• Make the content compelling to initiate learning
• Provide convenient venues in order to maximize
  educational translation

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Three components

• 1. interactive screen saver
• 2. hyperlinked to a website offering awareness,
  summary, and comprehensive level content
• 3. Opportunity to get free Continuing Education

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• Can you identify these organisms?
• What does this x-ray reveal?
• What caused these lesions?
• What caused the disease in the brain?

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• Anthrax and Smallpox
• Compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows
  2000, Windows NT and computers with a minimum of
  32MB of RAM and 6MB of free disk space
• Statistics were recorded bi-weekly and with
  comprehensive Web site traffic reports between
  October 2003 December 2003

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Table. Comparison of Correct Responses During
Three Trial Phases.
Change Pre-Examination to Post-Examination
Bioterrorism Questions and Emergency Medicine
Questions.
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Web Site Usagewww.bioterrorism-uab.ahrq.gov
Oct. 18th, 2001- March 1st, 2004
3,139,163 Total Hits 58,000 Unique Visitors
gt100 Countries 1,690 CME certificates issued
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• CME certificates to 650 physicians and 991 others
• Hits coincided with prominent national public
  health events

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CDC preparing teams to deal with smallpox threat
and vaccination plans
Traces of anthrax spores found at mail facility
suggests cross contamination of mail
FDA rules that licensed Anthrax vaccine is safe
and effective, despite the route of exposure of
infection
It is reported that mass smallpox vaccination in
U.S. could cause high number of deaths
Correlation between smallpox vaccine and heart
problems
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• It can be concluded that the availability of
  information on Web sites such as this one
  contributed to the management of the prominent
  national public health events involving anthrax
  and smallpox
• The combined use of screensavers, web-based
  education, and CME is a highly received and
  efficient means of providing needed education.