SARS Resources

SARS Resources is an extremely useful practical website organized by members of the unfortunate group faced with containing the North American epicenter of the SARS outbreak (Greater Toronto Area Critical Care/Emergency Medicine Advisory Group). It provides materials that have been developed to assist health care providers in caring for patients with SARS, and it meets the needs of those trying to minimize the devastation of potential outbreaks, both locally and internationally. If the website remains current then it should prove to be a helpful resource for future outbreaks.

Topical issues regarding protection of health care workers with respect to high-risk procedures are covered under 'protected code blue' (cardiac arrest in patients with SARS) and 'personal protection systems' pages. Numerous useful links throughout provide protocols for protected code blue, online graphic presentations for donning personal protection systems, and useful comparisons of the two locally available personal protection systems.

Other useful links include those to local provincial directives that mandate the above measures, to relevant emerging SARS literature, to other SARS epicenters, and to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A link to a 'Crash course in intensive care medicine for SARS patients' – a site targeted at non-intensivists from the Chinese University of Hong Kong – reminds us of the devastation that quarantining of health care workers has on the hospital labor force.

The website is hosted by the Technology Application Unit of the Intensive Care Unit, Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto. This group utilized their expertise in information technology to allow others to benefit from their recent experience with SARS.

Best feature

This is a free resource that is easy to navigate and provides numerous useful links.

Worst feature

This resource is intended largely for local use, and hence international applicability may be a concern.

Wish list

External/international peer review and a better indication of the last date the site was updated would be desirable.

Other links

Useful links to international and government organizations provide an overview of the problem and legislation/guidelines in place. Other websites providing practical advice are rare.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/

World Health Organization http://www.who.int/csr/sars/en/

Health Canada http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/pphb-dgspsp/sars-sras/index.html

United Kingdom Department of Health http://www.doh.gov.uk/sars/