News and Events

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March 12, 2010

-- NCDMPH Joint Program Coordinator presents at PHP Summit --

From February 17-18, 2010, members of the NCDMPH team exhibited and presented at NACCHO's 2010 Public Health Preparedness Summit in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kandra Strauss-Riggs, Joint Program Coordinator of the NCDMPH, gave a 90-minute presentation that included background information on the NCDMPH and its goals, as well as an interactive portion that sparked lively debate among the participants. Audience members included representatives from various public health offices, education institutions and local government agencies.

Using handheld responders, participants were able to anonymously vote on a series of questions about disaster medicine and public health. Graphs immediately depicting the results allowed audience members to engage in an open and honest debate on the many merits of standardizing education and training.

Additionally, the NCDMPH team displayed materials and spoke with summit attendees at their exhibit booth for the duration of the conference.

January 27, 2010

-- NCDMPH stresses importance of discussing ethics in disaster situations --

In the wake of recent feature articles in USA Today and NPR’s Health Blog on the difficulty of establishing ethical principles on the fly in Haiti, the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (NCDMPH) stresses the importance of devoting time to discussing these issues.

Despite the obvious roadblock of limited time during disasters, the NCDMPH recommends response teams dedicate a short amount of time and materials to a group discussion of ethical dilemmas they will likely encounter, and the discussion occur in a setting where personnel feel comfortable voicing their opinions. Aside from the ethical clarity gained from these discussions, a secondary benefit includes relieving the mental stress of responders.

The NCDMPH believes these discussions gain an even greater importance when military units are providing a significant proportion of medical services, such as the current situation in Haiti. It has been demonstrated through previous missions, including the U.S. Navy Comfort 's Continuing Promise mission in 2009, that these discussions can be held on board while the ship’s staff is being deployed or performing a mission.

These findings, along with an explanation of the importance of ethical discussions in disaster situations, can be found in the Institute of Medicine‘s Military Medical Ethics: Issues Regarding Dual Loyalties workshop summary, where Dr. Schor, Acting Director of the NCDMPH, was a guest speaker in 2008.

January 21, 2010

-- NCDMPH Applauds NLM Research Center's Collection of Haiti Resources --

With the extraordinary amount of materials on earthquake disasters and the multi-national response in Haiti being added to the web every day, the NCDMPH would like to congratulate and support the efforts of an interagency partner, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) for its Disaster Information Management Research Center.

The Disaster Information Management Research Center is an online resource for new materials on the Haiti earthquake from government agencies and non-government organizations. Links to background information on earthquakes and subsequent health issues, such as public health assessments, emergency surgical care, and management of dead bodies, are also provided.

As more information continues to be added, the NCDMPH suggests periodically checking the Research Center's website for updates of valuable and insightful information relevant to the situation in Haiti.

January 15, 2010

-- Earthquake in Haiti emphasizes importance of NCDMPH's mission --

On January 12, 2010 a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck southern Haiti, causing widespread fatalities, injuries and damage. President Obama has pledged the full support of the United States, and the appropriate government departments and agencies are rapidly arriving on the ground.

As additional rescue and relief workers from various sectors arrive, the coordination of resources and the communication and collaboration among these differing organizations becomes an important aspect of the overall effectiveness and success of the relief efforts. These factors, which will test the training and education of the responders, are a key component of the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health’s (NCDMPH) agenda going forward.

“The way in which these organizations work together – whether it’s between sectors, civilians and military or different countries – is going to determine how many lives can be saved, how much suffering can be averted and how successful the re-development of Haiti will be,” says Dr. Kenneth Schor, Acting Director of the NCDMPH.

Dr. Schor, who served as the Department of Defense’s humanitarian point of contact for the 2004 Haiti Crisis Interagency Working Group, believes the challenges facing the efforts in Haiti are precisely the areas in which the NCDMPH can have a positive impact.

“The team-building competencies we plan to develop will better prepare future responders for working in a collaborative environment, and will allow each organization to work to its full potential in an emergency situation,” he adds.

To evaluate potential donation options, please visit USAid.gov

For some additional collections of resources from objective sources, please review:
Responding to earthquakes 2008 - Learning from earthquake relief and recovery operations report
UNOCHA’s ReliefWeb.int UNOCHA’s ReliefWeb.int
CDC’s earthquake information page

January 11, 2010

-- National Health Security Strategy--

On Thursday, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius outlined the ten objectives needed to achieve health security in the nation's National Health Security Strategy. Read more about the objectives and to obtain a copy of the strategy and implementation guide at:
www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/01/20100107a.html .