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Hopkins Team To Develop Ebola Training Tool For Medical Workers

BALTIMORE (WJZ ) -- As the battle continues to make sure America's medical system is ready to handle Ebola cases, the Centers for Disease Control picks a team from Johns Hopkins to help develop a special tool to properly train health care workers nationwide.

As Derek Valcourt explains, technology will play a big part in making sure doctors and nurses don't contract the disease.

The goal of this online tool is to put Ebola protocol training right at the fingertips of doctors and nurses.

While treating Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas, two nurses contracted the deadly virus, despite wearing the required personal protective equipment. As a result, many nurses nationwide have raised concerns that they haven't been properly trained when it comes to Ebola protocols.

That's why the Centers for Disease Control tapped a specialized Johns Hopkins team to develop a web-based application that could help interactively train health care workers on the CDC's Ebola guidelines.

The team began development of the online program last week and can be seen in a video produced by Hopkins.

"We have to come out with something that is ultimately going to make health care workers feel safe so that they can communicate to the patients that we are really going to take care of you," said Trish Perl, Johns Hopkins.

Hopkins will be producing special videos that health care workers can watch and learn from, with special attention paid to what is considered one of the most critical areas of concern--properly putting on and taking off the personal protective equipment that can shield doctors and nurses from the highly contagious fluids of Ebola patients.

"In the taking off of your equipment after you've been in a patient care area for awhile, you're tired, you're hot, fatigue sets in. There's a lot of chance for human error," said Sandy Swoboda, Johns Hopkins.

Until now, hospitals have been responsible for conducting their own training and hundreds have participated in large group training presentations.

Johns Hopkins expect they will have that online training course ready to go in a few days. It will be available on iTunes U and through the CDC website.

The new online course will allow medical workers to review their training materials as much as they'd like.

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