Responding to Disasters: Academic Medical Centers?? Responsibilities and Opportunities

Abstract

Disaster preparedness and disaster response should be a capability of all academic health centers. The authors explore the potential role and impact of academic medical centers (AMC)s in disaster response. The National Disaster Medical System and the evolution of disaster medical assistance teams (DMAT) are described, and the experience at one AMC with DMAT is reviewed. The recent deployment of a DMAT sponsored by an AMC to the Hurricane Katrina disaster is described, and the experience is used to illustrate the opportunities and challenges of future disaster medical training, research, and practice at AMCs. AMCs are encouraged to identify an appropriate academic unit to house and nurture disaster-preparedness activities, participate in education programs for health professionals and the public, and perform research on disaster epidemiology and response. Networks of AMCs offer the potential of acting as a critical resource for those AMCs stricken by a disaster and for communities needing the infusion of highly trained and motivated health care providers. The Association of American Medical Colleges can play a critical role in assisting and coordinating AMC networks through its relationship with all AMCs and the federal government and by increasing the awareness of medical educators and researchers about this important, emerging area of medical knowledge.

Facilitators and obstacles in pre-hospital medical response to earthquakes: a qualitative study

“…The medical response in disasters is normally accompanied by managerial, logistic, technical, and medical challenges [15-19] which was also the case in the Bam earthquake [12,20,21]. Our objective was to explore the medical response to the Bam earthquake with specific emphasis on the pre-hospital medical management during the first days.…”

What structural factors influencing emergency and disaster medical response teams? A comparative review study

“…In most of these countries, the Ministry of Health is the lead agency for medical responses to the consequences of disasters. Hence, EDMRTs or DMATs are directly established by the Ministry of Health[ 16 22 ] or other nongovernmental and military institutions under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Health. [ 7 23 ] It is worth noting that in most of these countries, the Ministry of Health has established an office to organize and manage these teams.…”

“…[ 15 ] One of the subsets of this system is the Disaster Medical Response Teams (DMRTs), which are established at the local, regional, and national levels. [ 16 ] Team-based care is an important and integral part of medical response to disasters. On the basis of the policies of countries and the goals and expertise of the individuals, these teams have different structures.…”

Maximizing Utility of a Deployable Medical Team from an Academic Medical Center to a Disaster

“…AMCs can also be associated with, or largely staff, a Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT), part of the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) that augments the U.S. medical response capability to critical events. The University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (Sklar et al 2007), Mass General Hospital (Gaudette et al 2002), and more recently the Johns Hopkins Institutions are strongly identified with respective DMATs in their state.…”