Shakespeare observed that we are "Insensible of mortality, and desperately mortal." Planning for the inevitable is not in our nature, as any financial planner speaking with high school students about retirement planning will attest. If a pandemic, such as pandemic influenza, is inevitable --as most experts believe --it's already late in the game for preparedness.

• Recommended sites for tracking the H1N1 swine flu outbreak of 2009
• A section offering summaries and commentaries on research elsewhere has been added to the site.
• Commentary on Jain & McLean (2005) analysis of how simulation and gaming should be integrated
• Learn more about the new Influenza Prediction Market.

• "Branding" isn't the only thing happening in virtual space. We consider how manufacturers might participate in populating 3D worlds for applications such as preparedness simulations. See why we're interested in how the Play2Train team and the TVI ISO-POD beam themselves into Second Life.
• Read our take on "disaster resistance" as seen by the Eric Holdeman, Director of the Office of Emergency Management at King County in Washington state.
• Incident Commander is free for some public safety workers, but does it cover medical facility concerns? Read more in our Games section.
• In 2004, the US Department of Homeland Security "got it." They issued a Request for Information for simulation technologies to support training for incident management. We found it prescient, and have posted a copy here.
  

What about a computer game?

But what if planning insights are cloaked in the pleasantries of a game?:

• A realistic medical simulation ("medsim") could help make the daunting task of preparing for a pandemic less insurmountable.
• Desktop simulations, or exercises, are already widely accepted as an essential element in preparation. Computer games are a logical enhancement.
• According to American Hospital Association testimony, US funding for pandemic influenza preparedness addresses some core needs, such as enhanced manufacturing and stockpiles, but, according to Nancy Donegan, the AHA spokesperson, "no amount is specifically targeted to improving hospital preparedness" (from 2006-05-27 testimony before a Senate committee). If sufficiently inexpensive, computer-aided simulations could be part of the training solution.
• The US National Incident Management System (NIMS), administered by FEMA, requires that hospitals and healthcare systems incorporate incident command protocols into their "preparedness exercises." These exercises, already complex due to the interaction of multiple hazard types, levels of government and affected disciplines, must become even more so. Game technology could help.
• Major tabletop exercises, such as the EU World Economic Forum / Booz Allen Hamilton event held in Spring 2006, have already proven valuable to planners.

What sort of game? Will it really help?

Opinions vary as to what kind of simulation game would be the most helpful, and who would benefit most, but there seems to be general agreement within the serious games community that even modest results would reach a broad cross section of the health care community. Partly this is due to increasingly wide acceptance of computer game technology as a ubiquitous platform.

The question as to whether a medsim will truly help is to some extent a metrics question, a metrics and measurement consideration.

Dilbert Chimes In

An October 2009 Dilbert cartoon appearing on the Washington Post web site acknowledges the challenges facing planners.

Keep In Touch - Syndications

• PandemicSimulation.com - Topic Groups and Articles
  

Over-the-Horizon Innovation

Research at AVI suggests that more work is needed in key areas:

• Leverage game 3D asset collections and scripts from other open source and/or commercial projects
• Investigation of desktop-to-MMO gateways to facilitate health system network simulation incorporating intergovernmental and media interactions
• A robust and fully transparent game ontology, preferably vetted by representatives from affected professionals communities (see Ontologies)
• Ability to integrate with healthcare system IT using Service Oriented Architectures (see SOAs)
• Leverage results from academic and empirical non-game simulations
• Highly adaptive and flexible game AI able to utilize "canned" script macros
• Sophisticated representation of workflow. For example, integration of NIMS protocols with facility-specific response protocols
• Ability to tailor or localize aspects of the game: facility, disease model (e.g., whether a vaccine is available, supply chain, staffing, contracts, location, urban/rural setting)
• Use of high level scripting languages suitable for use by instructors or trainers