Disaster Medicine: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature From 2016

Abstract

Objective:The Society of Academic Emergency Medicine Disaster Medicine Interest Group, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response – Technical Resources, Assistance Center, and Information Exchange (ASPR TRACIE) team, and the National Institutes of Health Library searched disaster medicine peer-reviewed and gray literature to identify, review, and disseminate the most important new research in this field for academics and practitioners.Methods:MEDLINE/PubMed and Scopus databases were searched with key words. Additional gray literature and focused hand search were performed. A Level I review of titles and abstracts with inclusion criteria of disaster medicine, health care system, and disaster type concepts was performed. Eight reviewers performed Level II full-text review and formal scoring for overall quality, impact, clarity, and importance, with scoring ranging from 0 to 20. Reviewers summarized and critiqued articles scoring 16.5 and above.Results:Articles totaling 1176 were identified, and 347 were screened in a Level II review. Of these, 193 (56%) were Original Research, 117 (34%) Case Report or other, and 37 (11%) were Review/Meta-Analysis. The average final score after a Level II review was 11.34. Eighteen articles scored 16.5 or higher. Of the 18 articles, 9 (50%) were Case Report or other, 7 (39%) were Original Research, and 2 (11%) were Review/Meta-Analysis.Conclusions:This first review highlighted the breadth of disaster medicine, including emerging infectious disease outbreaks, terror attacks, and natural disasters. We hope this review becomes an annual source of actionable, pertinent literature for the emerging field of disaster medicine.

Hospitals as disaster victims: Lessons not learned?

“…7 The emergency preparedness and response literature is growing and reflects an expanding interest in and evolution of the science of hospital preparedness. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Although there are general themes described in the literature from specific hospitals that have experienced disasters that disrupted normal operations and patient care, [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] and although there is literature describing how hospitals should prepare for and respond to internal and external disasters, to the best of our knowledge there are no structured reviews on this topic. The objective of this paper is to provide a structured, detailed review and description of the common themes and lessons from disaster events that directly affect hospitals and health systems via damage to physical infrastructure or degradation of resources, thereby disrupting the basic function of patient care.…”

Digital adaptation of teaching disaster and deployment medicine under COVID-19 conditions: a comparative evaluation over 5 years

“…The current impressions emphasized the need, which was already known from previous experience with natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes, earthquakes) or man-made emergencies (e.g., terrorist attacks), for medical personnel to be comprehensively prepared and trained for such extreme situations as well [ 5 ]. This need applies not only to the clinical training of residents and specialists but also to medical students.…”

Global emergency medicine: A scoping review of the literature from 2021

“…This includes defining GEM, to which the GEMLR group takes an inclusive approach leading to frequent modifications to the search strategy. This iterative approach to article identification and scoring rubrics has been used by other groups 23,24 . This scoping review of the GEM literature seeks to provide an objective and accessible list of the top articles published in 2021 along with an interpretation of current GEM publication trends.…”