Focus on Disaster Medicine and Preparedness

Beth Macy’s Dopesick is a heartbreaking trajectory that illustrates how America’s twenty-plus year struggle with opioid addiction has persisted for this long and has become so firmly entrenched in practically every corner of our country—from desolate cities to once idyllic farm towns.

Tune in as Beth Macy joins Dr. Maurice Pickard to illuminate the persistent and often conflicting gaps in the treatment and criminal-justice landscapes while shining a hopeful light on the heroes battling the worst drug epidemic in American history.

There is still a great deal to learn about the long term effects of blast injuries on military personnel. Emerging evidence suggests that exposure to a blast can produce both overt and subtle neurological consequences in the brain, but much remains unknown.

Host Dr. Andrew Wilner is joined by Dr. Jack Tsao, Director of Traumatic Brain Injury Programs for the US Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, and Professor of Neurology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. He is a Captain in the United States Navy, and an expert in detection and prevention of traumatic brain injury in active duty military personnel.

In the aftermath of mass violence, from September 11th to the Paris attack to the Orlando shooting, fear and confusion often dominate the public consciousness. Unfortunately, most clinicians are not trained in tactical medicine to respond in times of crisis such as these. But a small subset of survuval medicine experts are working to change this pattern.

Dr. Brian McDonough speaks with Dr. Joseph Alton, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American College of OB/GYN, and author of The Survival Medicine Handbook: A Guide for When Help is Not on the Way. The two discuss key survival and disaster response considerations for clinicians caught in violently dangerous situations.

Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Denise Daniels, Peabody Award-wining broadcast journalist, author, and child development expert who specializes in the social and emotional development of children. Ms. Daniels talks about the challenges in helping children cope with the consistent exposure to tragic news around the world stemming from terrorism, wars, and natural disasters.

Dr. Matt Birnholz sits down with Dr. Andrew Bern, an emergency physician and independent health care consultant in South Florida. They discuss the process of forming specialty sections in ACEP, and focus on Dr. Bern's role in the evolving Disaster Medicine subspecialty through his continuing work in Ecuador. Dr. Bern, a former member of ACEP's Board of Directors, is a founding member of the Disaster, Geriatric, Tactical, Telemedicine and Disaster medicine sections at ACEP.

Dr. Matt Birnholz sits down with Dr. Carl Schultz, Research Director at the Center for Disaster Medical Sciences at University of California, Irvine. Dr. Schultz is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the UC Irvine and recipient of the Disaster Medical Science Award at ACEP. He talks about the challenges of securing funding for disaster relief in the field and the integration of citizen volunteers in a disaster incident.

Dr. Matt Birnholz welcomes Dr. Clifton Callaway, Professor and Executive Vice Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine. Dr. Callaway received ACEP's Outstanding Contribution to Research Award for his more than two decades of research dedicated to improving brain resuscitation after cardiac arrest. He joins Dr. Birnholz to discuss a research-guided evolution in resuscitation protocols based on improved physiological understandings of secondary brain injuries, comas, and recoveries.

Dr. Brian McDonough welcomes Dr Ken Yeager, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Ohio State University School of Medicine. Dr. Yeager examines how physicians can help their patients handle the stress of a "24-hour news world" with depictions and images of disasters coming into their homes every day.

Joining Dr. Brian McDonough to discuss clinical approaches to endemic fears and anxieties spread by acts of mass violence and terrorism, both abroad and within the U.S, is Dr. Arthur Caplan, Professor and founding Director of the Division of Medical Ethics in NYU Langone Medical Center’s Department of Population Health.

The federal government has acknowledged the United States needs to overhaul its effort to develop better measures to counter pandemic flus and bioterrorist threats. So with nearly $2 billion committed, Dr. George Korch, secretary of preparedness and response at the US Department of Health and Human Services, tells host Bruce Japsen about how this new initiative should improve the system of developing and manufacturing drugs and vaccines to prepare for public health crises.