The Next Monopoly? What “Pandemic” teaches us about public health
May 23rd, 2013 12:52 pm ET - Blog Administrator
By Sherline Lee
Even for an epidemiologist who works in public health preparedness and response, being asked to explain to the public what we do at CDC can be difficult.
That said, sometimes opportunities to talk about public health drop into your lap. A few months ago I was catching up with my friend Austin, an engineer for a large corporation. It turned out that while on long-term assignments he and his team had recently taken to playing the board game, “Pandemic
What? You Think Public Health is Fun?
When I asked Austin about why his teammates enjoyed Pandemic, he pointed out that the game differed from many others in that it was designed to make players collaborate, not compete. In addition, players had to learn not only their own roles but the roles of other players in order to attempt to outsmart the disease as it tried to spread city to city across the globe.
I remember our team talking to her about how well the game reflected the reality and values of public health. We also discussed how the game forced players to think beyond themselves and about the other people around their game table. Public health response, after all, is all about the collaboration of multiple disciplines that function best when they do it together. Public health professionals know that containing a pandemic requires practitioners all over the world to be well equipped and to be able to communicate just as well as game players around the same table.
Something’s Missing…
If there was one thing that did bother me, it was that among the five roles which players could pick from (i.e., archivist, medic, operations expert, scientist, and researcher), there was no epidemiologist. However, as I looked at the new version my friend Austin was playing, I was relieved to see an epidemiologist had finally joined the ranks in the expanded form of the game. That role, alongside seven new ones, became part of the “Pandemic” game world.
On a more personal note, I keep hoping to run into other friends and acquaintances that have played the game. After all, each fan of “Pandemic” I encounter represents another opportunity to talk about what we do in public health preparedness. And every game player might someday also become a fan of public health.
Sherline Lee is a CDC epidemiologist works in the Healthcare Preparedness Activity program (http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/healthcare) in the Division of Strategic National Stockpile and collaborates on developing tools with public health, healthcare, and emergency management partners.
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