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TOLEDO, Ohio, July 7-For Jeffery Gold, M.D., the disaster in London today brought back memories of Sept, 11, 2001. On that day, when he got the call, he was at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, miles away from the tip of Manhattan and the smoldering remains of the World Trade Center towers.
"I called my wife and kids to make sure they were okay, I took my ID so in case anything happened to me I could be identified, and I went," he recalls. "I was on a call list, and interestingly, most of the people called that day didn't want to go."
Dr. Gold, who is now dean of the College of Medicine of the Medical University of Ohio here, believes it "would be radically different today." He believes doctors today would want to go. The question is whether they would be ready.
Today in London, within a few hours of the blasts that rocked the city's transport system during the morning rush hour, the BBC was reporting that area hospitals were treating at least 400 casualties, including about 150 people who were seriously injured in the explosions. Other sources were putting casualties at more than 1,000.
Emergency department physicians know that when disaster strikes, they'll be on the front lines -- it comes with the territory. But in a crisis, every doctor, nurse and allied health professional may be called on to respond, and everyone needs to know where to go, what to do, whose orders to follow, and how to think on the fly, according to disaster preparedness experts.
"There's probably no specialty of medicine that is immune to the need to be knowledgeable and to be prepared," says Dr. Gold, a thoracic surgeon.
Dermatologists, for example, need to be vigilant for signs of biologic, chemical, or nuclear forms of terrorism, because many of the victims may first present to them with skin lesions or external other diagnostic signs.
Similarly, general practice physicians, pediatricians, allergists, or pulmonary specialists may see the first signs of airborne chemical or biologic attacks, and neurologists may be the first professionals to see victims of attacks with nerve agents.
The keys to preparedness, says James J. James, M.D., director of the AMA Center for Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response, are education and training in specific techniques of emergency response.
"We need to get away from teaching physicians, nurses, etc., what they already know, and teach them how to be a part of public health response system, and that's important because not everyone in a public health response is going to be doing the same things that they do day-to-day," Dr. James says. "They may be taking on newer roles."
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TOLEDO, Ohio, July 7-For Jeffery Gold, M.D., the disaster in London today brought back memories of Sept, 11, 2001. On that day, when he got the call, he was at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, miles away from the tip of Manhattan and the smoldering remains of the World Trade Center towers.
"I called my wife and kids to make sure they were okay, I took my ID so in case anything happened to me I could be identified, and I went," he recalls. "I was on a call list, and interestingly, most of the people called that day didn't want to go."
Dr. Gold, who is now dean of the College of Medicine of the Medical University of Ohio here, believes it "would be radically different today." He believes doctors today would want to go. The question is whether they would be ready.
Today in London, within a few hours of the blasts that rocked the city's transport system during the morning rush hour, the BBC was reporting that area hospitals were treating at least 400 casualties, including about 150 people who were seriously injured in the explosions. Other sources were putting casualties at more than 1,000.
Emergency department physicians know that when disaster strikes, they'll be on the front lines -- it comes with the territory. But in a crisis, every doctor, nurse and allied health professional may be called on to respond, and everyone needs to know where to go, what to do, whose orders to follow, and how to think on the fly, according to disaster preparedness experts.
"There's probably no specialty of medicine that is immune to the need to be knowledgeable and to be prepared," says Dr. Gold, a thoracic surgeon.
Dermatologists, for example, need to be vigilant for signs of biologic, chemical, or nuclear forms of terrorism, because many of the victims may first present to them with skin lesions or external other diagnostic signs.
Similarly, general practice physicians, pediatricians, allergists, or pulmonary specialists may see the first signs of airborne chemical or biologic attacks, and neurologists may be the first professionals to see victims of attacks with nerve agents.
The keys to preparedness, says James J. James, M.D., director of the AMA Center for Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response, are education and training in specific techniques of emergency response.
"We need to get away from teaching physicians, nurses, etc., what they already know, and teach them how to be a part of public health response system, and that's important because not everyone in a public health response is going to be doing the same things that they do day-to-day," Dr. James says. "They may be taking on newer roles."
Read More
