Terrorist attacks using chemical, biological, or radiological (CBR) agents are of great concern due to their potential for leading to large loss of life. The United States and other nations have spent billions of dollars on plans and protocols to defend against acts of terrorism that could involve CBR. However, CBR covers a wide range of input agents with many specific organisms that could be used in multiple ways. Timely response to such attacks requires rapid identification of the input agents involved. This can be a difficult process involving different methods and instruments.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with Dr. Lawrence H. Keith, president of Instant Reference Sources Inc. and other consultants, have incorporated their knowledge, experience, and expertise as well as information in publicly available EPA documents to develop the CBR Advisor using Exsys Inc.'s Corvid software.
One of the most important parts of the CBR Advisor is providing advice in logical step-bystep procedures to determine the identity of a toxic agent when little or no information is available, which is typical at the beginning of a terrorist attack. The system helps response staff proceed according to a well-established action plan even in such a highly stressful environment. The system's dual screens present three levels of information:
(1) a top/executive level with brief answers, (2) an educational level with in-depth information, and (3) a research level with links to other documents, slide shows, forms, and Internet sites. CBR Advisor's content includes:
Restricted content includes CBR agents and methods for analyzing them. The CBR Advisor can be used for incident response and/or training. It has two different menus, one for emergency response and another, longer menu for training. It is a restricted software program and is not publicly available.

Questions for Case
1. How can the CBR Advisor assist in making quick decisions?
2. What characteristics of the CBR Advisor make it an expert system?
3. What could be other situations in which similar expert systems can be employed? Expert systems are also used in high-pressure situations in which human decision makers often need to take split-second actions involving both subjective as well as objective knowledge in responding to emergency situations.