On 9 April 2013, an earthquake of 6.1 magnitude hit southwestern Iran near the city of Khvormuj and the towns of Kaki and Shonbeh in Bushehr province. The official disaster mitigation committee took immediate actions to coordinate rescue teams equipped with 24-hour medical air assistance. Overall, 160 victims were transferred to and treated in the Khvormuj hospital, while 139 survivors were tra...

About the lead author (Dr Weiner): I am a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s Hospital Boston (CHB)/Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the CHB representative and a chartermember of the HMS Section on Disaster Medicine. I have been a National Disaster Medical Systemmember on the Disaster Medical Assistance Team, the International Medical Surgical Response Team, and the Pediatric S...

After the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the United States Air Force deployed multiple medical units as part of the disaster response. Air Force Special Operations Command medical teams provided initial medical response and assisted in the organization of medical assets. A small portable expeditionary aeromedical rapid response team with the assistance of a mobile aeromedical staging facility...

Hospitals provide life-saving functions and emergency assistance to communities when disaster strikes. Any damage to hospitals from a disaster, either structural and non-structural, can impair these capabilities. In addition, an inaccurate estimation of the treatment capacities available at hospitals in a disaster-affected region can severely affect the success of emergency relief plans. In thi...

The Japan Medical Association (JMA) trains and coordinates medical teams, known as Japan Medical Association Teams (JMATs), to respond in the event of a disaster or other largescale medical emergency. In response to the Great East Japan Earthquake, the JMA, which comprises 160,000 members, deployed JMATs to the 4 prefectures with the most devastating conditions: Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, and Ib...

Natural and manmade disasters often result in the breakdown of social system and services with pronounced effects on human development and economy. They also cause illhealth and deaths either directly or through the disruption of health systems, leaving the affected communities without access to healthcare in times of emergency. Empirical evidence shows that these negative effects are dispropor...

BACKGROUND Disaster medicine education is an enormous challenge, but indispensable for disaster preparedness. AIMS We aimed to develop and implement a disaster medicine curriculum for medical student education that can serve as a peer-reviewed, structured educational guide and resource. Additionally, the process of designing, approving and implementing such a curriculum is presented. METHOD...