To the Editor:

We would like to respond to “Improving Hospital Preparedness for Radiological Terrorism” that was published in the October 2008 issue of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.

Through the use of focus group discussions, the authors have identified a critical information gap on the part of our nation’s emergency care providers with respect to radiological emergencies. The issues raised in the article highlight the importance of a central source of authoritative information and guidance accessible to providers at the time of an event as well as to those individuals responsible for planning a response to such events. Our goal in writing today is to reach out to your readers as well as the larger community of hospital emergency division providers with important information regarding the Radiation Event Medical Management (REMM) Guidance on Diagnosis and Treatment for Healthcare Providers, a valuable national resource accessible at http://remm.nlm.gov.

REMM was produced by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in cooperation with HHS’ National Library of Medicine and subject matter experts from the other HHS agencies: the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many United States and international consultants. Its goals are to provide guidance for health care providers about clinical diagnosis and treatment during mass casualty radiological/nuclear events; provide just-in-time, evidence-based, usable information; and provide Web-based information that is also downloadable in advance to a laptop or personal digital assistant, so that it would be available during an event if the Internet is not accessible.

For medical providers, REMM is a vital source of information relating to radiological and nuclear emergencies. Its resources range from scientific background information and incident scene management to standard operating procedures and patient care guidelines. REMM also provides decision guidelines and templates for use during an actual event.

HHS and its Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response want to assure your readers that the federal government is actively involved in improving our nation’s radiological preparedness and response capabilities.

We would highly encourage all interested parties to become familiar with REMM, as well as the many other tools and resources available through our local, state, and federal health departments. Information is the antidote to terrorism.