History
The term “disaster medicine” first appeared in the medical lexicon in the post World War II era. Although coined by former and current military physicians who had served in World War II, the term grow out of a concern for the need to care for military casualties, or nuclear holocaust victims, but out of the need to provide care to the survivors of natural disasters and the not yet distant memory of the 1917-1918 Influenza Pandemic.
The term “disaster medicine” would continue to appear sporadically in both the medical and popular press until the 1980s when the first concerted efforts to organize a medical response corps for disasters grew into the National Disaster Medical System. Simultaneous with this was the formation of a disaster and emergency medicine discussion and study group under the American Medical Association (AMA) in the United States as well as groups in Great Britain, Israel and other countries. By the time hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992, the concept of disaster medicine was entrenched in public and governmental consciousness. Although training and fellowships in disaster medicine or related topics began graduating specialists in the Europe and the United States as early as the 1980s, it would not be until 2003 however that the medical community would embrace the need for the new specialty.
Throughout this period, incomplete and faltering medical responses to disaster events made it increasingly apparent in the United States of America that federal, state and local emergency management organizations were in need of a mechanism to identify qualified physicians in the face of a global upturn in the rate of disasters. Many physicians who volunteer at disasters have a bare minimum of knowledge in disaster medicine and often pose a hazard to themselves and the response effort because they have little or no field response training. It was against this backdrop that the American Academy of Disaster Medicine (AADM) and the American Board of Disaster Medicine (ABODM) were formed in the United States of America for the purpose of scholarly exchange and education in Disaster Medicine as well as the development of an examination demonstrating excellence towards board certification in this new specialty.
Read more about this topic: Disaster Medicine
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