Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-q6k6v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-15T22:53:44.667Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Experience from the Great East Japan Earthquake Response as the Basis for Revising the Japanese Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) Training Program

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2014

Hideaki Anan ,
Osamu Akasaka ,
Hisayoshi Kondo ,
Shinichi Nakayama ,
Kazuma Morino ,
Masato Homma ,
Yuichi Koido  and
Yasuhiro Otomo
Hideaki Anan*
Affiliation:
Emergency Medical Center, Fujisawa City Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan
Osamu Akasaka
Affiliation:
Emergency Medical Center, Fujisawa City Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan
Hisayoshi Kondo
Affiliation:
Japan DMAT Secretariat, National Hospital Organization Disaster Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan
Shinichi Nakayama
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Hyogo Emergency Medical Center, Hyogo, Japan
Kazuma Morino
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Yamagata Prefectural Medical Center for Emergency, Yamagata, Japan
Masato Homma
Affiliation:
Division of Emergency and Disaster Medicine, Tottori University, Tottori, Japan
Yuichi Koido
Affiliation:
Japan DMAT Secretariat, National Hospital Organization Disaster Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan
Yasuhiro Otomo
Affiliation:
Department of Acute Critical Care and Disaster Medicine, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Hideaki Anan, MD, FJSIM, Emergency Medical Center, Fujisawa City Hospital, 2-6-1 Fujisawa, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Japan (e-mail: [email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective

The objective of this study was to draft a new Japanese Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) training program based on the responses to the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Methods

Working group members of the Japan DMAT Investigative Commission, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, reviewed reports and academic papers on DMAT activities after the disaster and identified items in the current Japanese DMAT training program that should be changed. A new program was proposed that incorporates these changes.

Results

New topics that were identified to be added to the DMAT training program were hospital evacuation, preparations to receive DMATs at damaged hospitals, coordination when DMAT activities are prolonged, and safety management and communication when on board small helicopters. The use of wide-area transport was reviewed and changes were made to cover selection of various transport means including helicopter ambulances. Content related to confined space medicine was removed. The time spent on emergency medical information system (EMIS) practical training was increased. Redundant or similar content was combined and reorganized, and a revised DMAT training program that did not increase the overall training time was designed.

Conclusion

The revised DMAT training program will provide practical training better suited to the present circumstances in Japan. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;8:477-484)

Keywords

disaster medicineemergency medicineinformation systemsnatural disasterschemical hazard releasemedical transportation
Type
Brief Reports
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 8 , Issue 6 , December 2014 , pp. 477 - 484
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Kondo, H, Koido, Y, Morino, K, et al. Establishing disaster medical assistance teams in Japan. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2009;24:556-564.Google Scholar
2. Anan, H, Kondo, H, Morino, K, et al. Studies of program revision-Japan educational course and establishment of Japan DMAT maintenance course [in Japanese]. J Jpn Soc Emerg Med. 2010;13:498-504.Google Scholar
3. Anan, H, Kondo, H, Otomo, Y, et al. The problem about unification of purpose between the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare DMAT secretariat headquarters and each all-prefectures agency DMAT adjustment headquarters at the time of a broader-based disaster [in Japanese]. J J Disaster Med. 2012;17:61-65.Google Scholar
4. Uehiyama, T. Destruction of hospital functioning caused by massive tsunami [in Japanese]. J J Disaster Med. 2012;17:4-8.Google Scholar
5. Yano, K, Hayakawa, T, Suzuki, T, et al. Support operation for patients evacuation from Ishinomaki Municipal Hospital [in Japanese]. J J Disaster Med. 2012;17:179-184.Google Scholar
6. Yamanouchi, S, Inoue, J, Yamada, Y, et al. Action of Miyagi Prefectural Operational Headquarters for DMATs regarding the Great East Japan Earthquake [in Japanese]. J J Disast Med. 2012;17:38-44.Google Scholar
7. Matsumoto, H, Motomura, T, Hara, Y, et al. Lessons learned from the aeromedical disaster relief activities following the Great East Japan Earthquake. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2013;21:1-4.Google Scholar
8. Moroe, Y, Ninomiya, N, Kuno, M, et al. What is the “SAFETY” on confined space medicine (CSM)? Learning from an experienced “CSM” in the crash spot at a parking slope of the supermarket in Tokyo by the Great East Japan Earthquake [in Japanese]. J J Disaster Med. 2012;17:45-51.Google Scholar
9. Ukai, T. The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the problems with emergency medical care. Ren Fail. 1997;19:633-645.Google Scholar
10. Tanaka, H, Oda, J, Iwai, A, et al. Morbidity and mortality of hospitalized patients after the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. Am J Emerg Med. 1999;17:186-191.Google Scholar