Dartmouth named National Center for Health Preparedness

Posted 10/04/00

As part of the country's front-line defense against health threats, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have designated Dartmouth a national center for public health preparedness. Five new centers will be named as components of a national system to ensure public health readiness; two, including Dartmouth, are specialty centers.

Through Dartmouth Medical School's Interactive Media Laboratory, Dartmouth will help develop and strengthen computer network capabilities. The IML will provide applied communications technology, aiding research, professional education and public health training.

"It is an honor -- and a tribute to the excellence of our information technology resources -- that Dartmouth has been selected to contribute to this mission that benefits public health and medicine," said DMS Dean John Baldwin. He announced the designation on Oct. 4 with Edward Baker, Assistant U.S. Surgeon General and Director of the CDC Public Health Practice Program Office.

Headed by Joseph V. Henderson, the IML already has a record of cutting-edge interactive education and e-learning, also known as distance learning.

"We have a long history of pioneering work in e-learning," Henderson said, "producing multimedia and immersive training programs for a variety of audiences, as well as developing high-bandwidth, Internet-based e-learning systems."

A hallmark of the CDC programs is incorporating narrative and practice opportunities and featuring "mentors who are both master practitioners and master teachers," he said.

Dartmouth's new center will continue to research and develop e-learning models for the public health work force that keep pace with the evolution of computers and the Internet.

"Professional education in public health will be increasingly facilitated by the proliferation of computers capable of displaying combinations of text, graphics, video and sound," Henderson said, "[along with] broadband networks capable of delivering these multiple media to the home or office, and new methods for using these technologies for education and training,"

The laboratory is developing a prototype distance-learning system for public health professional education that takes advantage of the emerging broadband Internet. The system will be accessible on demand from anywhere worldwide and will also run on the Internet.

Using the Internet, the new Center will provide a virtual forum for sharing e-learning ideas, information and experiences that foster a community of developers. It will produce e-learning programs for public health professionals and students in related areas, and will also comprise an interdisciplinary development group and faculty members at Dartmouth who will offer workshops in classrooms and online.