Lessons Learned in a Large-Scale Mass Casualty Simulation

2022 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-52
Author(s):  
Blaine Winters ◽  
Emily Lund ◽  
Kayla Sylvester ◽  
Lauren Price
2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 330-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cham E. Dallas

ABSTRACTThe Chernobyl disaster in 1986 involved the largest airborne release of radioactivity in history, more than 100 times as much radioactivity as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs together. The resulting emergency response, administrative blunders, and subsequent patient outcomes from this large-scale radiological disaster provide a wealth of information and valuable lessons for those who may find themselves having to deal with the staggering consequences of nuclear war. Research findings, administrative strategies (successful and otherwise), and resulting clinical procedures from the Chernobyl experience are reviewed to determine a current utility in addressing the appropriate protocols for a medical response to nuclear war. As various myths are still widely associated with radiation exposure, attention is given to the realities of a mass casualty medical response as it would occur with a nuclear detonation.(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2012;6:330-334)


2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 253-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adi Leiba ◽  
Amir Blumenfeld ◽  
Ariel Hourvitz ◽  
Gali Weiss ◽  
Michal Peres ◽  
...  

AbstractIntroduction:Large-scale, terrorist attacks can happen in peripheral areas, which are located close to a country's borders and far from its main medical facilities and involve multi-national casualties and responders. The objective of this study was to analyze the terrorist suicide bombings that occurred on 07 October 2004, near the Israeli-Egyptian border, as representative of such a complex scenario.Methods:Data from formal debriefings after the event were processed in order to learn about victim outcomes, resource utilization, critical events, and time course of the emergency response.Results:A total of 185 injured survivors were repatriated: four were severely wounded, 13 were moderately injured, and 168 were mildly injured. Thirty-eight people died. A forward medical team landed at the border town's airport, which provided reinforcement in the field and in the local hospital. Israeli and Egyptian search and rescue teams collaborated at the destruction site. One-hundred sixty-eight injured patients arrived at the small border hospital that rapidly organized itself for the mass-casualty incident, operating as an evacuation “staging hospital”. Twenty-three casualties secondarily were distributed to two major trauma centers in the south and the center of Israel, respectively, either by ambulance or by helicopter.Conclusion:Large-scale, terrorist attacks at a peripheral border zone can be handled by international collaboration, reinforcement of medical teams at the site itself and at the peripheral neighboring hospital, rapid rearrangement of an “evacuation hospital”, and efficient transport to trauma centers by ambulances, helicopters, and other aircraft.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-249
Author(s):  
Alissa Lenz, BS ◽  
Ryan Shelton, MPS, NREMT-P ◽  
Rebecca Ryznar, PhD ◽  
Kit Lavell, BA ◽  
David Ross, DO, FACEP ◽  
...  

Objective: As the incidence of active shooters increase, local emergency response has also changed. South Metro Fire Rescue coordinated a series of hyper-realistic active shooter simulation drills involving multiple agencies.Methods: “The Next Nine Minutes” was one of the largest active shooter drills performed to date with 904 personnel that were trained in 18 mass casualty active shooter drills. Evaluation was from point of injury to and including care in the operating room (OR), and evaluation of real-time system logistics.Results: A total of 126 patients in Cut Suits® received a total of 479 procedures such as needle decompressions, cricothyrotomies, tourniquets, wound packs, and chest tubes. Central to this exercise, law enforcement (LE) established a warm zone from the initial shooting. EMS was able to move into the facility, locate casualties, extract the first victim, move them to a casualty collection point (CCP), and transport them to safety within 12 minutes.Conclusions: Strengths and weaknesses were identified in prehospital and in-hospital care. These included what roles agencies play in a true event, specific timing in establishing areas such as the warm zone and CCP, transportation, and logistics at the accepting hospitals. Only after the barriers to success were identified and addressed did the timing of casualty movement drastically improve. Lessons learned from this training were ultimately used to save lives at the STEM School, Highlands Ranch, and Colorado Shooting. This in situ immersion training should be practiced as a whole system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3S) ◽  
pp. 638-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine F. J. Meijerink ◽  
Marieke Pronk ◽  
Sophia E. Kramer

Purpose The SUpport PRogram (SUPR) study was carried out in the context of a private academic partnership and is the first study to evaluate the long-term effects of a communication program (SUPR) for older hearing aid users and their communication partners on a large scale in a hearing aid dispensing setting. The purpose of this research note is to reflect on the lessons that we learned during the different development, implementation, and evaluation phases of the SUPR project. Procedure This research note describes the procedures that were followed during the different phases of the SUPR project and provides a critical discussion to describe the strengths and weaknesses of the approach taken. Conclusion This research note might provide researchers and intervention developers with useful insights as to how aural rehabilitation interventions, such as the SUPR, can be developed by incorporating the needs of the different stakeholders, evaluated by using a robust research design (including a large sample size and a longer term follow-up assessment), and implemented widely by collaborating with a private partner (hearing aid dispensing practice chain).


2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-16
Author(s):  
José Suárez-Varela ◽  
Miquel Ferriol-Galmés ◽  
Albert López ◽  
Paul Almasan ◽  
Guillermo Bernárdez ◽  
...  

During the last decade, Machine Learning (ML) has increasingly become a hot topic in the field of Computer Networks and is expected to be gradually adopted for a plethora of control, monitoring and management tasks in real-world deployments. This poses the need to count on new generations of students, researchers and practitioners with a solid background in ML applied to networks. During 2020, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has organized the "ITU AI/ML in 5G challenge", an open global competition that has introduced to a broad audience some of the current main challenges in ML for networks. This large-scale initiative has gathered 23 different challenges proposed by network operators, equipment manufacturers and academia, and has attracted a total of 1300+ participants from 60+ countries. This paper narrates our experience organizing one of the proposed challenges: the "Graph Neural Networking Challenge 2020". We describe the problem presented to participants, the tools and resources provided, some organization aspects and participation statistics, an outline of the top-3 awarded solutions, and a summary with some lessons learned during all this journey. As a result, this challenge leaves a curated set of educational resources openly available to anyone interested in the topic.


2021 ◽  
pp. 037957212098250
Author(s):  
Jennifer K. Foley ◽  
Kristina D. Michaux ◽  
Bho Mudyahoto ◽  
Laira Kyazike ◽  
Binu Cherian ◽  
...  

Background: Micronutrient deficiencies affect over one quarter of the world’s population. Biofortification is an evidence-based nutrition strategy that addresses some of the most common and preventable global micronutrient gaps and can help improve the health of millions of people. Since 2013, HarvestPlus and a consortium of collaborators have made impressive progress in the enrichment of staple crops with essential micronutrients through conventional plant breeding. Objective: To review and highlight lessons learned from multiple large-scale delivery strategies used by HarvestPlus to scale up biofortification across different country and crop contexts. Results: India has strong public and private sector pearl millet breeding programs and a robust commercial seed sector. To scale-up pearl millet, HarvestPlus established partnerships with public and private seed companies, which facilitated the rapid commercialization of products and engagement of farmers in delivery activities. In Nigeria, HarvestPlus stimulated the initial acceptance and popularization of vitamin A cassava using a host of creative approaches, including “crowding in” delivery partners, innovative promotional programs, and development of intermediate raw material for industry and novel food products. In Uganda, orange sweet potato (OSP) is a traditional subsistence crop. Due to this, and the lack of formal seed systems and markets, HarvestPlus established a network of partnerships with community-based nongovernmental organizations and vine multipliers to popularize and scale-up delivery of OSP. Conclusions: Impact of biofortification ultimately depends on the development of sustainable markets for biofortified seeds and products. Results illustrate the need for context-specific, innovative solutions to promote widespread adoption.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhilan Chen ◽  
Chun Zhang ◽  
Jiu Yin ◽  
Xin Xin ◽  
Hemei Li ◽  
...  

AbstractChina and the rest of the world are experiencing an outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Patients with cancer are more susceptible to viral infection and are more likely to develop severe complications, as compared to healthy individuals. The growing spread of COVID-19 presents challenges for the clinical care of patients with gynecological malignancies. Ovarian debulking surgery combined with the frequent need for chemotherapy is most likely why ovarian cancer was rated as the gynecologic cancer most affected by COVID-19. Therefore, ovarian cancer presents a particular challenging task. Concerning the ovarian cancer studies with confirmed COVID-19 reported from large-scale general hospitals in Wuhan, we hold that the treatment plan was adjusted appropriately and an individualized remedy was implemented. The recommendations discussed here were developed mainly based on the experience from Wuhan. We advise that the management strategy for ovarian cancer patients should be adjusted in the light of the local epidemic situation and formulated according to the pathological type, tumor stage and the current treatment phase. Online medical service is an effective and convenient communication platform during the pandemic.


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