Disaster planning is only as good as the assumptions on which it is based. However, some of these assumptions are derived from a conventional wisdom that is at variance with empirical field disaster research studies. Knowledge of disaster research findings might help planners avoid common disaster management pitfalls, thereby improving disaster response planning. To illustrate the point, this a...

INTRODUCTION This paper provides an overview of cases seen by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) medical and surgical teams in the 2009 Sumatra earthquake and discusses the role of militaries in the acute phase of a disaster. METHODS Two SAF primary healthcare clinics prospectively collected patient medical information for comparison. Descriptive analysis of the Emergency Department (ED) and su...

INTRODUCTION An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale on 23 December 2003 devastated the city of Bam in southeastern Iran. During the response and recovery phases, considerable shortcomings were discovered. The dire situation in the affected area, a variety of urgently required interventions, and the large number of aid organizations involved brought about difficulties in management, co...

BACKGROUND Although nurses play an important role in humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HA/DR), little is known about the nursing activities that are performed in HA/DR. We aimed to clarify the nursing activities performed by Japanese nurses in HA/DR and to examine the factors associated with the frequency of nursing activities. METHODS A self-administered questionnaire survey was complete...

In emergencies, exceptions to data protection raise concerns that data may become available to unexpected actors during and after a crisis, resulting in privacy intrusion and social sorting. Apart from ethical issues, there are legal issues, for example around data minimization and issues around social and cultural practices of sharing information. This paper explores key ethical, legal and soc...

It is a privilege to publish the 2011 Harvard Humanitarian Action Summit summaries in this issue of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. The annual Humanitarian Action Summits, which began in 2009, have included international experts from all fields of the humanitarian community. The 2011 Summit was particularly important because those attending were able to review and analyze the humanitarian ac...

Assessing the changing dynamic between the demand that is placed upon a community by cumulative exposure to hazards and the capacity of the community to mitigate or respond to that risk represents a central problem in estimating the community’s resilience to disaster. This paper presents an initial effort to simulate the dynamic between increasing demand and decreasing capacity in an actual dis...

Perspectives The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has firmly placed disability in a human rights perspective. In the context of the Convention, disability refers to activity limitations and participation restrictions that result from the interaction of an impairment of body function or structure with environmental factors. The Convention addresses the rights ...

Dr. Weiss has asked that we develop one-or twopage vignettes or case studies explaining specific areas of psychological research that pertain to various aspects of disaster preparedness and recovery. These need to be written for the non-psychologists and they should explain why this research may help inform policy. These vignettes should also provide a summary of data and a brief history of the...