Experts Discuss Mass Casualty Incident Response

Sandy Bogucki, MD, PhD:
Yale University School of Medicine;
US Department of Health and Human Services

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Technology challenges relating to mass casualty disaster was the topic of the CIMIT Forum held April 24 at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Sandy Bogucki, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor at Yale University and a senior medical advisor to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, outlined broad needs that communities must respond to when a mass casualty incident (MCI) occurs.

She defined an MCI as an event that involves six to 12 severely injured patients, and up to several dozen less critical victims.

Dr. Bogucki said that challenges range from adjusting preconceived MCI planning scenarios to the organizational and IT obstacles inherent in multi-jurisdictional responses, the dilemma of triage, the treatment and transport of victims despite inadequate local resources.

She suggested that medical and community leaders must examine their capabilities and attempt to improve their ability to react to unexpected disasters.

Also presenting were a half-dozen students from Harvey Mudd College of Claremont, Calif.

They discussed “design and development of a real-time mass-casualty accountability system.”

Noting that many victims of Hurricane Katrina were unable to receive care, they discussed a plan they conceived to provide a portable, non-invasive system to monitor heart rate, body temperatures and location of vulnerable people within a given area.

That data would be wirelessly transmitted to a centralized data processing unit for use by professionals knowledgeable about mass casualty situations.

Moderator was William Weismann, M.D., CEO of BioSTAR Group.