Disaster medicine
Disaster medicine is a specialized field focused on addressing the medical needs that arise during mass casualty events or epidemics. It prepares healthcare professionals to manage a sudden surge of patients while facing limited resources and unpredictable conditions. Responding to disasters requires unique skills, including triage—the prioritization of treatment based on the severity of injuries—while also ensuring safety from potential hazards like chemical contamination or infectious diseases.
The field gained prominence following significant events like the September 11 attacks and subsequent public health crises, highlighting the necessity for coordinated medical responses. Effective disaster medicine involves collaboration with various agencies, including law enforcement and public health organizations, to ensure a comprehensive response. Medical professionals often work under challenging circumstances, potentially treating patients in makeshift environments and making tough ethical decisions regarding resource allocation.
Recognizing the complexities of disaster response, medical training programs are increasingly incorporating disaster medicine into their curricula, and specialized teams are being established in hospitals. Overall, disaster medicine plays a crucial role in enhancing preparedness for natural disasters and public health emergencies, ensuring that healthcare systems can effectively respond to large-scale crises.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Disaster medicine
Disaster medicine is a field of medical study and practice that focuses on the special requirements of responding to a sudden large influx of patients because of an epidemic or a mass casualty event. Medical professionals responding to these situations often have to provide more care with fewer resources in uncertain conditions. They may need to take special precautions to protect themselves and others in the area. Disaster medicine requires coordination with outside agencies, such as law enforcement, other medical facilities, and the media, and an awareness of the physical and emotional needs of those responding to the disaster.
Overview
In the latter part of the twentieth century, interest grew in having medical facilities prepared to deal with large numbers of casualties, such as those resulting from an epidemic or a catastrophic fire or accident. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which resulted in nearly three thousand deaths and thousands of injuries in the eastern United States, and the anthrax scares that followed that same year increased awareness of the need for plans for coordinated efforts to respond to future events. Since that time, disaster medicine plans have been implemented around the world for natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes and for events such as the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and other terrorist attacks.
Responding to disasters requires some special considerations and skills beyond the abilities to identify and treat an illness or injury. Disasters generally result in large numbers of patients with injuries of varying severity, all of whom require medical professionals to perform triage, a process that decides the order in which people receive care. These patients may be contaminated with chemicals, infectious agents, or other substances that put caregivers at risk and require special precautions, such as protective equipment and decontamination processes. Injuries may be extremely severe, and the sheer number of injuries could strain the available resources, including manpower, space, equipment, medicine, and reserve blood. Additional concerns include lack of power and lighting, contaminated water, or transportation issues caused by weather conditions or infrastructure damage. A disaster or an epidemic requires medical professionals to coordinate with other hospitals, government agencies, law enforcement, and the media.
All of these factors can result in medical professionals providing treatment in less-than-optimal conditions. For example, patients may need to be treated in open hallways or even outside in unprotected areas. Medical professionals may need to make difficult decisions about the order in which to treat patients based on the best use of available resources, which can result in medical ethics issues. Responding to a disaster or an epidemic may require medical professionals to work more hours with fewer or no breaks, resulting in physical fatigue. In addition, dealing with all of these special circumstances along with treating severe and traumatic injuries can place medical professionals and first responders under great psychological stress.
Medical schools have begun offering special courses to prepare new professionals specifically for disaster response. Many hospitals have trained special teams to respond. In 2006, the American Board of Disaster Medicine was founded to help promote disaster medicine preparedness.
Bibliography
"American Academy of Disaster Medicine." American Association of Physician Specialists, Inc.,www.aapsus.org/american-academy-disaster-medicine. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.
"American Board of Disaster Medicine." American Board of Physician Specialties,www.abpsus.org/disaster-medicine. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.
"American Board of Disaster Medicine." Centers for Disease Control, 28 Apr. 2006, www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5516a7.htm.Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.
"American Journal of Disaster Medicine." Weston Medical Publishing, 1 Aug. 2017, www.pnpco.com/pn03000.html. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.
"Disaster Medicine Section." European Society for Emergency Medicine,eusem.org/sections-and-committees/disaster-medicine-section/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.
Gunn, S. W. A., and M. Masellis. "The Scientific Basis for Disaster Medicine." Annals of the MBC, vol. 5, no. 1, Mar. 1992, www.medbc.com/annals/review/vol‗5/num‗1/text/vol5n1p51.htm. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.
Manastireanu, Dan, and Nicolae Steiner. "Disaster Medicine or Medical Management of Disaster." Management in Health, vol. 14, no. 1, 2010, journal.managementinhealth.com/index.php/rms/article/view/101/226. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.
Suner, Selim. "History of Disaster Medicine." Turkish Journal of Emergency Medicine, Oct. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4910125/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2017.