What is B3?

B3 stands for 'Bombs, Blasts and Bullets'. It was initially conceived as a stand-alone course by its designers, Dr Andy Robertson and Dr David Caldicott. They perceived that there was a paucity of information available to Australian first-responders, facing the growing prospect of terrorism on Australian soil. There was also little opportunity outside the higher echelons of disaster planning for grass-roots elements to familiarise themselves with the principles of disaster management and disaster response. As importantly, there were pockets of expertise in Australia in aspects of disaster management or blast injury that had no outlet into the wider response community. B3 was designed to address these anomalies. The first courses were piloted in Western Australia, with the intention of becoming available to those interstate and federally at a later time. Five courses have been run to date, with over 250 personnel having completed the course.

The Course

The B3 Course has now been run 3 times in WA and most recently, on the opening day of the Australian Trauma Society meeting in September 2006. The course is designed to act as a primer for first responders who would be most likely to be those first facing the horrifying outcome of terror on Australian soil. It is deliberately eclectic, drawing on the well established principles of EMST/ATLS, MIMMS, PHTLS, (B)ATLS, EMSB as well as the more recent additions to the alphabet of courses BDLS and ADLS. The topics include:

• The Evolution of the Modern Terrorist Threat
• The 'What If…?' Scenario
• The Physics of Ballistic and Blast injury
• The Management of Terrorist DiSsaters
• Managing the Media
• Post-traumatic Stress / Psychological impacts

Faculty are drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds including medical, the police, and the military. They are united by the common features of expertise in the field, and a commitment to spreading that expertise, free of charge, in a truly collegiate manner. The course is dynamic and rapidly evolving, with feedback from courses quickly incorporated into the syllabus. Under a special agreement with Channel 7 News, 'wild' (unedited) footage of world events have been made available to course organisers to illustrate specific aspects of medical response to terrorism.

The Concept

The enthusiasm with which the B3 course has been received has resulted in an expansion of the original concept into a wider B3 community. Corresponding with the Federal Launch of B3 at the Australian Trauma Society meeting, The B3 Website has been launched to augment the course. The website will have a number of useful components to those involved in research, including:

• Course material
• Original articles by faculty members
• Links to important sites
• Discussion forums
• Extensive bibliographies

Perhaps the most innovative aspect of the B3 Website will be the dedicated research programme associated with it. Topics on subjects such as medical response to terrorism can be difficult to research, depending as it does on data generated by infrequent catastrophic events. The concept of the Delphic Oracle has evolved to address precisely such issues, and has been used in the United Kingdom to arrive at expert consensus opinions on such issues as decontamination and personal protective equipment. Over the next 6 months, the B3 Faculty will be addressing issues raised at courses, and developing consensus guidelines as well as suggestions about how further research might be conducted. The website will allow users to submit questions for analysis.