Play2Train virtual world provides disaster training

Imagine you’re a hospital administrator, going through a sheaf of paperwork, when suddenly the phone rings and you’re told a downtown restaurant has exploded, possibly killing the mayor who was dining inside.

Instantly the phone lines are jammed with calls from the media, people concerned for their loved ones and an army of emergency responders. What do you do?
It’s a nightmare scenario, but one that online grad students at Seton Hall University in New Jersey had to face in March through Play2Train – a virtual training space in the Web-based world of SecondLife – conceived and designed by Idaho State University research assistant professor Ramesh Ramloll.
Though not intended to replace traditional disaster preparedness training, educators who’ve used Play2Train say it’s a big improvement over tabletop exercises in which scenarios have to be visualized and talked through face-to-face.
“Just like any kind of new learning tool there is a curve, a comfortability curve to it; but I think the opportunities and the options to integrate it and enhance what would have been a paper and pencil exercise … make it just so much more real life, even though it’s a virtual world,” said Anne Hewitt, associate professor at Seton Halls’ Graduate Department of Public Healthcare Administration.
Paid for by a three-year, $3.2 million grant from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Play2Train is a fully-realized virtual environment comprised of a town and two hospitals spread over three islands. It snows, rains, fogs up and suffers wind storms, fires and icy roads. There are birds in the sky, traffic  in the streets and more than 200 users can interact with all of it (and each other) in real-time from anywhere in the world.
Ramloll says the technology is more than fun and games though – it provides an ideal opportunity to test out disaster scenarios that otherwise would require months of planning and substantial investment.
“Most people think of games as something you do in leisure time, it’s not important. It’s only now that people are realizing the importance of artificial intelligence for preparedness training and education,” he said.
Play2Train operates under the Idaho Bioterrorism and Preparedness Program, and the Seton Hall exercise has generated enough interest that Ramloll says Northrop Grumman and the Centers for Disease Control are looking at using it for their own training. Earlier this month Ramloll took part in a presentation to the Association of University Programs and Health Administration in Washington D.C., showing more than 100 of the nation’s leading health educators Play2Train’s capabilities – by giving them a guided tour of the digital environment from his apartment in Pocatello.  
“We are the only effort which is actually trying to embed virtual environment training within real world practice right now. I don’t know of anybody else,” he said. “This whole project has been totally at the bleeding edge.”
While funding for the project will run out in a year, Seton Hall’s healthcare administration graduate students will undertake another exercise in early July, and Ramloll says he hopes to get at least one Idaho hospital involved.
Play2Train designers are putting the finishing touches on an exact 3-d replica of Elk’s Rehabilitation Hospital in Boise, which Ramloll said may host an exercise next month as well, though representatives from the hospital said they couldn’t confirm it would happen.