The discipline of emergency medicine includes the field of disaster medicine. Unfortunately, little actual emphasis is placed upon this vital area of training in emergency medical residency programs aside from nominal involvement in mock hospital-community disaster drills and triage exercises. In addition to these important areas of disaster medicine, physicians must be knowledgeable in field medical sanitation, environmental illnesses, ground and aero-medical evacuation, epidemiology and logistics in addition to hands on emergency medical casualty care. To better serve this important neglected area of the emergency medicine residency curriculum, we developed a one-month block of instruction.

The operational medicine course is composed of separate instructional modules. The emphasis of the field medical training is obviously a military one; however, that emphasis is easily translated into a field medical environment, one that is commonly employed in military disaster relief operations. The American armed forces, particularly the US Army, frequently come to the aid of victims of both civil and natural disasters. This humanitarian assistance also serves the readiness training goals of the Army Medical Department during peacetime.