The US Army has used virtual reality simulations for combat training since the late 1980s. Trainees are placed inside a module, three or four walls of which are filled with computer-generated screens of a battlefield terrain seen from different perspectives. Participants might be inside a replicated combat vehicle or walking a treadmill through a virtual cave. They wear electronic devices that monitor their movements as they encounter those designated as the enemy, who are operating other modules. Everyone is networked by simulated radio communications to battalion and brigade command posts. The military calls this "sweaty palms realism," because the soldiers react as though they're in a real battle, despite the knowledge that it's virtual. The numbers of such training stations initially were limited, but computer-based simulators now allow widespread access. Why couldn't this technology be adapted to drill health workers on the possibilities of a bioterrorist attack?
It can be, ...
