Hospital-based health care pros now can turn to the Web for information on diagnosing and treating rare infections and possible bioterrorist agents such as anthrax and smallpox. Touted as the first of its kind, the Web site — designed by researchers at the Center for Disaster Preparedness at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality — offers free continuing education credits in bioterrorism preparedness.

Five online courses covering anthrax, smallpox, botulism, tularemia, viral hemorrhagic fever, and plague, are already available for emergency department clinicians, and more are in the works. Each course is good for one hour of CME credit.

“The evidence-based information…will help front-line clinicians in our nation's hospitals be better prepared in the event of another bioterrorist attack,” says AHRQ director John M. Eisenberg, MD.

Visit the Web site at www.bioterrorism.uab.edu.