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.
Disaster Management and Preparedness Resources Web Page
The AAST Disaster committee has created this site to help members prepare for and respond to disasters and mass casualty incidents. It provides real-time as well as educational resources that will help clinicians prepare to meet these challenges. Please visit the webpage here.
Surgical Disaster Surge Planning
The AAST Disaster Committee has been actively looking at how best to help surgeons to prepare for mass casualty
events that require multiple simultaneous operating rooms. This type of scenario penetrates deeply into a hospital and quickly involves perioperative staff and resources not usually involved in conventional disaster planning. The committee is developing a white paper to address this issue and is planning a lunch session for members at the 2023 Annual Meeting in September.
Pediatric Disaster Readiness
The national efforts to improve the capabilities of EMS and hospital emergency rooms to care for sick and injured children must consider planning for disaster scenarios that include pediatric patients. The AAST Disaster Committee is working in partnership with other key national organizations to make sure that pediatric patients are included in all aspects of disaster preparedness.
eDMEP ®
The American College of Surgeons - Committee on Trauma has revised the Disaster Management and Emergency Preparedness course so that it will soon be available on an electronic platform. This will allow greater access for surgeons and institutions as they prepare for the COT trauma center verification process and will significantly improve the availability of this important course to trauma care providers. The AAST Disaster Committee is working closely with the ACS-COT to develop content related to surgical surge preparation. The AAST Disaster Committee will also introduce eDMEP® to the organization’s membership at an AAST Grand Rounds in February 2024.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
- Are Trauma Surgeons Prepared? A Survey of Trauma Surgeons’ Disaster Preparedness Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Published in TSACO June 2023.
- Disaster Planning for a Surgical Surge: When Mass Trauma Threatens to Overwhelm Your Operating Rooms.
Being finalized by committee for submission to TSACO.
RECENT LUNCH SESSIONS
- Disaster Medicine Opportunities for the Interested Surgeon: How to Get Involved and What to Expect. Presented at the 80th Annual Meeting, September 2021.
- Galvanizing the International Trauma Community During Times of Conflict. Presented in collaboration with the AAST International Committee at the 81st Annual Meeting, September 2022.
- Disaster Planning for a Surgical Surge: When Mass Trauma Threatens to Overwhelm Your Operating Rooms. Lunch session to be presented at the 82nd meeting, September 2023.
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:
- Go to: https://www.facs.org/ogb/portal.
- Register as a volunteer and create a profile.
- Click submit.
- Open the disaster registry link and enter the additional information.
- 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. Mark Gestring with your questions and thoughts.