Delivering biodefense continuing education to military medical providers by allowing a biodefense educational curriculum to unfold in practice

Abstract

A challenge today is how to deliver initial and continuing education on biodefense to military medical providers in a manner that can be integrated into their workflow and lifestyle. A summative evaluation of a prototypical biodefense digital library (BDL) and learning collaboratory was performed. The BDL posted daily links to biodefense news stories from January 2004 to December 2005. Four evaluations were completed, that is, content evaluation, curriculum comparison with a biodefense graduate program, usage evaluation, and impact factor analysis. News stories (N = 678) came from a broad range of authoritative national and international news sources (N = 178). News stories covered all of the categories in the required and elective formal biodefense graduate program courses. The BDL was consistently displayed on the first page of the top three Internet search engines, meaning that it was among the top 10 authoritative Internet sites on biodefense. Presenting biodefense news stories to busy military medical providers in an organized chronological fashion produces an unstructured biodefense educational curriculum that unfolds in practice and becomes an educational resource that is ultimately well regarded and may be efficient to use. Reprint & Copyright © by Association of Military Surgeons of U.S., 2007.