Effective preparedness, response, and recovery from disasters require a well-planned, integrated effort with experienced professionals who can apply specialized knowledge and skills in critical situations. While some professionals are trained for this, others may lack the critical knowledge and experience needed to effectively perform under stressful disaster conditions. A set of clear, concise...

Natural disasters can cause significant numbers of severe, disabling injuries, resulting in a public health emergency and requiring foreign assistance. However, since medical rehabilitation services are often poorly developed in disaster-affected regions and not highly prioritized by responding teams, physical and rehabilitation medicine (PRM) has historically been underemphasized in global dis...

The landmark Humanitarian Response Review, commissioned by the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator in 2005, has catalyzed recent reforms in disaster response through the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. These reforms include a "cluster lead" approach to sectoral responsibilities and the strengthening of humanitarian coordination. Clinical medicine, public health, and disaster incident m...

When first published more than three decades ago, an original intent of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine was to report on conference proceedings and provide a forum for field reports that described and analyzed experiences relative to medicine and health issues associated with prehospital care and disaster response. As the field of prehospital and disaster medicine evolved, there has been an e...

As recent events highlight, a global requirement exists for evidence-based training in the emerging field of Disaster Medicine. The following is an example of an International Disaster Medical Sciences Fellowship created to fill this need. We provide here a program description, including educational goals and objectives and a model core curriculum based on current evidence-based literature. In ...

The World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM) holds regional and global congresses to advance disaster health and emergency medical education and research. The congresses are a platform for professionals and those interested in disaster and emergency health to network and exchange ideas. Key to each congress is the exchange of experiences among colleagues. The World Congress...

Medical librarians have often been overlooked as important contributors to hospital disaster preparedness. Recognizing the importance of medical libraries and their potential in disaster planning and management, the National Library of Medicine (NLM), Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC), formed a pilot Disaster Information Specialist Project. This paper describes the prelimi...

The report by Peral Guiterrez de Ceballos and colleagues [1] is a timely, well written, and informative contribution to our growing body of knowledge of disaster medicine, as well as an appalling confirmation of the horrors of the senseless and vicious scourge of terrorism that now afflicts the world. Their comprehensive analysis of the results of medical management of 312 survivors triaged to ...

After-action reports detailing the preparation, response, and outcomes after large tornadoes are sparse in the medical literature. Thus, the retrospective report by Ablah and colleagues1 in this issue of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, documenting the EF5 tornado that devastated Greensburg, KS, in May 2007, is a timely and important contribution to the growing disaster medicin...