Simulator Aids CDC’s Preparedness by Replicating Medical Supplies Distribution

This is the final piece of a four-part series that looks at how different simulation systems are used to educate and train some of the nation’s emergency managers and first responders.

• Part one: Simulation-Based Training Provides Cost-Effectiveness, Flexibility. A virtual replica of New York City provides its Office of Emergency Management with a unique way to test its command element.
• Part two: Los Angeles launched the nation’s first Hydra system, which uses video feeds to monitor real-time decision-making during critical incident training.
• Part three: HAZMAT Software Trains Responders on Instruments, Risk Assessments, Responses. Dartmouth College’s Interactive Media Laboratory developed Ops-Plus for WMD Hazmat following 9/11 to help first responders in terrorism response.

Public Health Preparedness

One system that promotes the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of virtual training is Lockheed Martin’s Incident-Management Simulator (LMIS), which can be used to test plans, identify potential impacts of real-world events and train for a variety of disasters. The LMIS is based on military technology and was enhanced to communicate with emergency operations center equipment, according to Angelo Prevete, a program manager with Lockheed Martin. “If an emergency operations center wanted to dispatch 30 trucks and deliver materials and fly airplanes, instead of doing that in real life, they would be talking to the simulation and the simulation would do it,” he said.
   
The company developed simulations based on Hazus, FEMA’s methodology for estimating losses from a disaster, and situations dealing with weapons of mass destruction, but agencies’ models can be incorporated into the system. Lockheed Martin worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create the Stockpile in Motion Across the Nation (SIMAN) training program — an adaptation of LMIS — that replicates the distribution and receiving of medical supplies to state governments.
   
Ed Avery, an emergency management specialist with the CDC, said SIMAN is only used in-house and is being augmented. “Our big objective for this project is to establish a simulation capability that portrays very realistic, real-time actions that are directed by our response staff to conduct preparedness activities with more frequency and fewer resources to allow us to meet our objectives,” he said.
   
The CDC has been including its internal organizations in the project to ensure that processes are accurately reproduced. During a recent drill, SIMAN was used to simulate an anthrax release during a three-day exercise. Prevete said 107 participants in the drill, including representatives from various government agencies, warehouses, the media, FedEx and the U.S. Marshals Service.
   
The simulations can be stopped, fast-forwarded or replayed in case participants want to rethink decisions or aren’t engaged in the exercise. The LMIS also can model real-world events to help agencies determine critical information. “If you have a hurricane coming down on you and it’s six hours out, you can use it to model the effects so that you know six hours before landfall where the key crisis points are going to be,” said Jay McDevitt, an exercise conductor with Lockheed Martin.

Real-World Training Reigns King

Agencies at all levels of government are implementing simulated training scenarios to support their education and planning efforts, but real-world drills will always be the most beneficial, say those who work in the field. “This will never replace actual exercises, but it will allow us to cost-effectively exercise more often and to scale and tailor things to different needs within the division and the agency,” said Ed Avery, an emergency management specialist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
   
The New York City Office of Emergency Management echoed the sentiment. The agency began using simulation-based training to exercise its citywide incident management system, but it won’t replace full-scale exercises. “We’re still going to do those, but [simulation] is a way we can do it in a more controlled environment and not impact the public,” said Jacob Cooper, a deputy commissioner for the agency.

[Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin.]