The Disaster Project

When you think about the association between climate change and disaster, some of the links may seem obvious. For example, it makes sense that as the climate gets warmer, there will be more drought leading to less food and increasing famine, and starvation. But, did you know that increased temperatures are also associated with increased violence and thus linked to civil unrest? In this episode we...

Have you ever thought about the impact that repeatedly experiencing destruction and human suffering has on the people who respond to disasters? Although every person responds to traumatic events differently, being exposed to the mental trauma of an intense experience like a disaster has been correlated to increasing levels of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. While it is one thing for people who purp...

Join me as I talk with Dr. Joelle Simpson about the importance of developing disaster plans and responses that specifically target the needs of our country’s pediatric populations. Dr. Simpson is a pediatric emergency medicine physician with Children’s National Health System where she serves as the Division Chief of emergency medicine and the Medical Director of emergency preparedness.  She i...

When I think about austere medicine, I tend to think about wilderness medicine, but it is not actually limited to the wilderness arena at all. Technically, the practice of austere medicine is just medicine in resource constrained environments and who goes into resources limited situations more than the military? Today we will discuss military and austere medicine, and in particular disaster planni...

While the world’s increasing dependance on technology has, in many ways, improved our quality of life, in other ways, it has created problems that 50 years ago the average person could not have imagined. In fact, I would argue that it has created a whole new category of disaster. Cyber disaster. In this episode of The Disaster Project, we talk with two people who by virtue of being both physicians...

On this episode of The Disaster Project, we have the opportunity to talk about the ins and outs of urban search and rescue, or USAR, with Dr. Anthony Macintye. Dr. Macintyre is an emergency medicine physician, FEMA employee, and the medical director for Fairfax County’s Virginia 1 Urban Search and Rescue Team—one of only 2 US-based urban search and rescue teams that deploy to international disaste...

Despite the numerous recent fires that have gained public media attention, this year has been a less active fire season than we have seen in the last few years. While there are many factors that may have contributed to this, not the least of which may be the heavy snowfall in California over the winter, it is important to note that based on historical data the trend is towards more intense fire se...

Dr. Dan Hanfling, an emergency department physician and vice president on the technical staff at a company called In-Q-Tel ( Home - In-Q-Tel ( iqt.org ) ) will talk to us about biosurveillance. We will not only learn what biosurveillance is, but also about how promising new advances in bio surveillance can be used in disaster preparedness and response. Interested in delving deeper into the world o...

When you think about disasters, do you think about immunizations? Well, maybe you should! Today we talked with Dr. Steven Cochi, a pediatrician by training who spent a career devoted to the eradication of immune preventable infectious disease at the CDC. Let’s connect the dots and learn about the importance of vaccinations in disaster situations.

During this episode we talk with Dr. James Phillips to get a better understanding about what a disaster really is and what the field of disaster medicine is all about.

Today we talk with the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Dawn O’Connell, about The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), and its role in disaster preparedness and response for the United States. Along the way, learn more about being a woman in the disaster field.

For this episode spoke with Dr. Chris Goldfinger from Oregon State University about earthquakes. Specifically the impending Cascadia subduction zone earthquake. We discuss how an earthquake in the Pacific Northwest could compare to the recent earthquakes in Syria and Turkey as well as the 2011 earthquake in Japan. Listen for tips and preparedness recommendations for improving your safety in case o...

This episode introduces the fascinating world of disaster medicine, response, and management, explains why it is so important to the safety of our society, and provides a brief overview of some of the topics that we will be diving into over the course of this podcast.