In the United States, a full listing is maintained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  It can be found at http://training.fema.gov/hiedu/collegelist/pubhealth/index.aspx.

I know Boston University School of Medicine has a robust program. 

I would also look a the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.

Thanks Donald.

Hi Luc,

In the Military Medicine Track at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, undergraduate medical students get a series of lectures on Disaster Medicine, including natural disasters, rescue and support delegations, CBRN events (both combat and home-front terror events) and so on. The lectures are in Hebrew.

From time to time medical students in other faculties in the country get the same lectures, but this is not obligatory. At a later stage, almost every physician in the country takes part in either local or national drills and has the chance to get the information.

Hope this helps,

Arik

Thanks a lot Arik!

All of us know that we can only dream of the disaster preparedness in Israel (on the other hand we don't have to be jalous on the risks you're confronted with).

Luc

Disaster medicine education in British Columbia, (and the situation is similar across Canada per chats with my colleagues) is thin.

There are a number of very interested individuals across the country, from a variety of professional backgrounds, who are active in promoting improved disaster prep, education, training, etc. However, like all things that don't occur daily.... out of site = out of mind, and the funding isn't there to do this work more than off the side of one's desk. 

What is interesting to me is that we have a divide between Emergency Management and Emergency Medicine. With such similar names, you'd think they work very closely together. The Emergency Management community is very involved in professional preparation for disasters regionally affecting people, property and infrastructure, but there is very little funded collaboration time between them and the Emergency Medicine Community.

There is an assumption that "the hospitals will know what to do", but the time, funding and effort to get disaster drills and "code orange" training off the ground precludes it in working professionals... the result, very little systematic teaching in disaster medicine. As such, the medical schools have no formal curriculum in disaster medicine and/or emergency management. They may get a lecture on it during an emergency medicine rotation, but this is not consistent.

Locally, our Mass Gathering Medicine research team (http://mgm.med.ubc.ca) involves students and residents in participating in aspects of the planning for mass gathering and mass participation events. We very deliberately get them thinking about the logistics, power, water, sanitation, personnel, communication, transportation, equipment, resupply lines, and many other issues that mass gathering medical response shares with disaster medicine. Developing a more organized curriculum, and using mass gatherings as a "live fire" or "field" exercise is our future goal. I've attached an article that explores this further for those interested. 

Canada is a very geographically large country with a very distributed population. Face to face training for specialized topics is prohibitive in this environment. An eLearning solution to Disaster Medicine Education is a topic that our team has explored in the past. During my residency, when 2 colleagues and I were working on our Masters, we piloted an online program to provide case-based disaster education for medical students and emergency medicine residents. We got great feedback on the National pilot, but the lack of sustainable funding to develop more modules eventually relegated it to the back-burner. 

Back to your question, Luc... Canada does not have a robust model of education for disaster medicine in its Medical Schools. 

Article Disaster Medicine Online: Evaluation of an online, modular, ...

Article Mass gathering medicine: A practical means of enhancing disa...

It varies.  In the post-9/11 era, there was a movement to include more disaster education for medical students.  Not sure of the status now.  Contact Jo Wiederhorn at the Associated Medical Schools of New York (http://www.amsny.org/) for more information.  In addition, NYU School of Dentistry was very involved in getting more disaster education for dentists, as well. 

I would agree with Donald that FEMA is your best resource. I am attending classes on emergency management/mass casualty management in Anniston Al with FEMA, Homeland Security as well as Center for Domestic Preparedness.  

I spoken with an instructor with FEMA and there are mass casualty simulations run here at Noble Hospital. This has a full ED, acute care floor and surgical unit with a Sim. man in every bed. 100-200 patients are run through in a 12 hours HCL exercise. http://cdp.dhs.gov/

Hi Luc et al.

In South Africa we include a 2-4week training of medical students in emergency, trauma and critical care and at least one lecture is allocated to the summated content of the international MIMMS course principles. Our students have now had this for the past 2 years and seem to be valuing the experience.