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Training Prepares Local NDMS Member to Help During National Emergencies

An internal medicine physician from Bethel Park, Dr. Timothy Campbell, is participating in unique National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) training at the nation’s premier, all-hazards training facility in Alabama from February 27 to March 4. Dr. Campbell serves as a member of an NDMS Disaster Medical Assistance Team.

The NDMS is a federally administered program that can support communities with medical care and mortuary assistance during disasters or public health emergencies, and is among the resources made available by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR).

NDMS teams consist of physicians, nurses, veterinary staff, paramedics, fatality management professionals, and experienced command and control staff. When an emergency overwhelms local and state resources, ASPR looks to the expertise within NDMS teams from across the country to assist in the response. The most realistic training NDMS teams can receive to prepare for this vital mission is at the Center for Domestic Preparedness operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Anniston, Alabama.

To help make the training as realistic as possible, NDMS members participate in hands-on mass casualty exercises in which actors and sophisticated patient simulators are the disaster survivors NDMS members triage and treat. During the week-long training sessions, responders operate medical facilities similar to field hospitals and effectively manage medical needs arising from the disaster scenario.

For more information about Federal medical response and NDMS, visit:  www.phe.gov.

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