Disaster Committee

The Disaster Committee supports the education, research and advocacy missions of the AAST by reviewing current threats to the population likely to produce mass trauma events, and creating guidelines, policy, and education materials for AAST members to enhance our national preparedness and resiliency.

Survey of AAST and COT members on Disasters 

 The AAST and COT Disaster Committees are conducting a survey on disaster and mass trauma preparedness of COT and AAST members and their trauma centers.  The survey has 15 questions and takes about 10 minutes to complete.  If you wish to participate, you can point your phone at the QR code on this page or go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AAST  After completing the survey, you can enter to win a donated iPad Mini.

Best Practices Guidance for Trauma Centers and Trauma Surgeons 

The Disaster Committee is conducting focused interviews of AAST and COT members who have recently had to respond to mass trauma after natural or man-made events.  The plan is to identify lessons learned from those experiences and create materials that can help trauma centers, trauma medical directors, trauma managers, and members to better prepare their center and themselves for mass trauma.  Please contact the Disaster Committee Chair, Dr. Jay Doucet jaydoucet@ucsd.edu, or Vice-Chair Dr. David Shatz dvshatz@ucdavis.edu for more information.

Operation Giving Back- AAST Disaster Surgery Initiative

The AAST Disaster Committee has been working with Operation Giving Back (OGB), a program of the American College of Surgeons, to develop a platform to manage registries of individuals who may want to volunteer in different capacities including disaster response. Individuals may register as a volunteer for OGB and, if interested, also as part of the newly-formed disaster registry. The disaster registry is designed to help disseminate requests for surgical teams from various organizations responding to world-wide humanitarian disasters.

To register for this disaster registry, please:

1. Go to: https://www.facs.org/ogb/portal.
2. Register as a volunteer and create a profile.
3. Click submit.
4. Open the disaster registry link and enter the additional information.
5. Click submit. 

If you have any questions on OGB, please email ogb@facs.org.

The Disaster Committee needs your ideas to keep our imaginations open and to stay prepared!  Please contact the Disaster Committee Chair, Dr. Jay Doucet jaydoucet@ucsd.edu, or Vice-Chair Dr. David Shatz dvshatz@ucdavis.edu with your questions and thoughts.