Crisis Simulations International, LLC, in collaboration, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, has developed a pandemic flu simulation and training system using CSI's patent-pending DXMA™ simulation software.

Throughout 2007 and 2008, this system trained public health officials, health care executives, senior business and government leaders, and others by allowing them to make decisions and experience the 'stress' of a real crisis in the safety of a training environment. The simulation allowed the participants to experience a pandemic flu outbreak as if it were real and happening in real-time. It allowed them to learn the cascading consequences of decisions made, both by individual roles in the simulation and jointly. It highlighted the interdependencies between organizations in both the private and public sectors.

A pandemic outbreak simulation
Working together, Crisis Simulations International and the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center created the following scenario:

The scene: Missouri Department of Health officials report to the Governor of Missouri that there is a strong possibility that the first outbreak of avian flu occurred at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, the neighboring state. One college student has died from respiratory failure; his roommates are seriously ill and on ventilators at the local hospital.

Possible cases are beginning to show up in Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri. Samples have been sent to the state public health lab and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Test results are pending.

Using CSI's computer-based pandemic flu simulation, the participant roles of the Governor. the Director of Public Health and other public and private sector leaders will be faced with implementing Missouri's pandemic flu plan. They will have to make important decisions that will have direct and indirect consequences for the state, both in lives and economic impacts.

The simulation asks: If you were faced with the following decisions, what decisions would you make? What options from those listed below would you choose?

1. Evacuate Kansas City and St. Louis
2. Vaccinate the old and very young, or school aged children
3. Close the schools in Kansas City, or statewide
4. Close the malls in KC and St. Louis, or statewide
5. Restrict air and other travel

In conducting the simulation, additional questions are presented:

• What will the consequences of those decisions be?
• What decisions made by one role would impact others?
• How would those intersecting decision impact the final outcome?
• What would the financial consequences be, and how many human lives will be lost?

And, most importantly, would the outcomes actually look like what you -- and other senior decisions makers in the community -- anticipated when writing your pandemic emergency plans

The reality
A pandemic flu in the U.S. is closer to reality than it has been in the last 75 years; to the extent that the conventional wisdom has changed from "if a pandemic flu hits" to "when a pandemic flu hits". This concern is primarily focused on avian flu and has become so great that the federal government is increasingly involved in preparing for an outbreak.

Therein lays a major concern and misunderstanding about how to best prepare for a pandemic flu. Many organizations, both private and public, are focusing their preparedness efforts on writing plans and not on stress-testing those plans, not practicing decision-making and/or not stockpiling supplies and anti-viral drugs.

Computer-based simulation training like those developed by CSI for Penn State, the Safe America foundation and other organizations, allows communities and organizations to stress-test existing plans and view the outcomes of decisions made. By practicing decision-making and reviewing the outcomes now, organizations, communities, government agencies and businesses have a much better chance of coping with a real pandemic --- when it happens.

Pandemic Influenza Links
Click here for links to sites containing further information about influenza pandemics and other health emergencies.