The goal of this program is to ensure the delivery of appropriate education and training to public health and healthcare professionals in preparation for and response to bioterrorism and other public health threats and emergencies either directly or through the use of existing curricula.

Three major activities are the focus of this program:

• Statewide Coordination - Statewide coordination and collaboration on bioterrorism and preparedness activities including developing and maintaining education and training materials.

• Public Health Training - Education and training of public health professionals at both the state and local level.  This includes providing technical expertise and an emphasis on increasing epidemiology skills through a staff member dedicated to epidemiology training.

• Health Care Training - Education and training of key healthcare professionals.  The two infectious disease physicians and nurse with the Program provide education and training to the medical community through direct face-to-face presentations, developing resources, working with academic medical institutions to integrate information into existing curricula and providing medical expertise.

The core curricula topic areas provided or facilitated by this program include:

• Top bioterrorism agents and emerging infectious diseases

• Public Health Incident Management System

• Smallpox preparedness, response and mass vaccination clinics

• Medical experts for rapid response teams

• Epidemiology and surveillance including forensic epidemiology

• Risk communication

Key to this program’s delivery strategy is the use of a variety of distance learning technologies in addition to the traditional face-to-face methods.  These include:

• A learning management system for web-based student management and course delivery and management

• Computer based training on a desktop computer delivered through the Internet or on portable media (i.e. DVD or CD-ROM)

• Video instruction through DVD, VHS tapes or streaming videos on websites

• Audio-only through telephone conferences

• Static training materials such as Word or PDF documents delivered over the Internet or through SIREN

• Satellite broadcasts