Center for Disaster Medicine

The Center for Disaster Medicine (CDM) is on the cutting edge of disaster medicine. Since its founding in 2005, the Center conducts interdisciplinary research, training, technical assistance, and educational activities related to emergency preparedness for disasters, terrorism and public health emergencies. By training the responders, and by focusing on vulnerable populations, including children, the disabled, and the elderly, the Center fulfills a unique role in the region by serving as a multi-disciplinary academic resource on a diverse range of emergency preparedness issues.

As part of New York Medical College, the leading academic biomedical sciences institution and principal academic public health resource to all seven health departments in the Hudson Valley, the Center offers its specialized services and education to those involved with the response to disasters, terrorism and public health emergencies. The Center serves as a multi-disciplinary academic resource on a wide range of emergency preparedness topics. We specialize in:

• preparedness issues unique to New York's Hudson Valley region
• preparedness for special populations including children, the elderly and persons with disabilities.

Through the School of Health Sciences and Practice, the Center for Disaster Medicine offers an Advanced Certificate in Emergency Management.

NYSTAR Center of Excellence

In 2018, the NYMC Center for Disaster Medicine was designated as a Center of Excellence in Precision Medicine and Responses to Bioterrorism and Disasters by the Empire State Development Corporation Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR). This funding aimed to foster collaboration between academia and business, develop new technologies, attract private sector investment, and promote technology-related businesses in New York State. The CDM is the nation's first civilian resource of its kind, pioneering advancements against chemical and biological terrorism, as well as mass casualty incidents. The Center works to translate research into practical solutions that safeguard against bioterrorism, mass casualties, and various disasters. Its broad competence spans natural disasters, terrorism, operational and tactical medicine, public health preparedness, and specialized readiness for children, individuals with disabilities, and healthcare systems.

CDM is the only healthcare designated center of excellence in the Hudson Valley and the only disaster-related center of excellence located at a medical school. Offering education and training, structured simulation exercises with feedback, drills and expert consulting, the Center is a unique and widely-sought resource for law enforcement, EMS, fire services, healthcare, public health, business and education sectors. The Center offers:

• Sensory overload and sensory deprivation training unit
• Simulated environments (including apartment, criminal location, and meth laboratory)
• High fidelity human patient simulations, simulated patients, and training mannequins
• Tactical medical equipment
• Tactical police simulation equipment
• Simulated patient rooms

NYSTAR funds 11 Centers of Excellence to foster collaboration between the academic research community and the business sector to develop and commercialize new products and technologies, to promote critical private sector investment in emerging high-technology fields in New York State, and to create and expand technology-related businesses and employment. This program was created to enhance and accelerate the Center’s operations, facilitating joint college-industry research and development, product commercialization and workforce training.

Innovative Education and Immersive Medical Technologies

The Center for Disaster Medicine, at its core, is an academic entity that places the learning needs of its students and stakeholders first. Educational innovation highlights the center’s constant pursuit of exploring new modalities in teaching, novel learning theories, realistic experiences, and a perpetual reexamination of effectiveness. Educators within the CDM maintain involvement in the study of learning, educational technology, knowledge and skills retention, and new trends in training delivery.

Simulation, or the imitation of a real-world system or process, is one specific educational modality that is utilized by the CDM to complement our learning experiences in medicine, emergency preparedness, emergency response, and organizational systems. The Center’s expertise in simulation education and technology allows for increased value in experiential learning. Simulation has been evidenced to improve safety, performance, and efficiency in a multitude of professions.

Operational and Tactical Medicine

The Center for Disaster Medicine’s Division of Operational and Tactical Medicine focuses on researching and teaching the best practices for delivering high-quality, high-impact care in environments outside the realm of traditional medicine. Utilizing the concepts and guidelines set forth by the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care (CoTCCC) and Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (C-TECC), the CDM provides guidance and education to law enforcement officers, pre-hospital healthcare providers (e.g., emergency medical technicians, paramedics, and firefighters), in-hospital healthcare providers (e.g., doctors, nurses, etc.), and the civilian community as a whole. Through partnerships with federal, state, and local government organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the CDM is able to provide educational opportunities both on-campus and remotely.

The CDM develops training courses that involve care under austere conditions, limited resource availability, inter-agency collaboration and cooperation, incident management and command concerns, and medical control. Simple skills (e.g., tourniquets, wound packing, patient movement, etc.) are evaluated during complex environments and repeated until the desired metrics are met. Tactical concerns are evaluated during scenario-based training, which provides the participants with current best practices.

The CDM Division of Operational and Tactical Medicine also supports the training efforts of the Westchester County Department of Emergency Services, Westchester County Police Academy, Dutchess County Emergency Management, New York State Department of Health Bureau of EMS and Trauma, and many others. CDM hosted a two-day course on Operational Medicine for law enforcement with participants from the FBI, Homeland Security and local police departments. Officers were trained in didactic topics in basic tactical medicine, including sensory-impaired environments, direct threat care, indirect threat care and evacuation care.

Healthcare and Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Education

The Center for Disaster Medicine provides workshops, training and education to healthcare providers in the healthcare and public health sectors in order to be better prepared for natural or man-made disasters including mass casualty incidents and bioterrorism. CDM provides specially tailored programs for healthcare and public health professionals by reviewing the research and lessons learned from past events in order to improve future emergency response.

CDM has in-house expertise on healthcare and public health emergency preparedness and uses that knowledge and experience to improve the capabilities of the healthcare sector at the local, national and international level. CDM staff has shared lessons learned with healthcare professionals throughout New York State and as far as Spain.

Emergency Preparedness for Special Populations

The Center for Disaster Medicine has expertise in emergency preparedness for special populations such as but not limited to children, the elderly and people with disabilities. Such special populations require specially tailored programs for its consumers and healthcare professionals. We also offer American Heart Association (AHA) courses such as Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Pediatric Emergency Assessment, Recognition and Stabilization (PEARS) specifically designed for pediatric patients.

Prehospital Emergency Medicine and Emergency Management for the Public and Private Sectors

The Center for Disaster Medicine’s Division of Prehospital Emergency Medicine and Emergency Management focuses on research, education, and training within these fields in order to best prepare first responders and the public to meet the needs of their communities during their times of need, at both the local and global levels. The CDM maintains expertise in all facets of the prehospital emergency medicine system, especially:

• Organizational operations
• Communications
• Trauma systems, hospital networks, and specialty care centers
• Clinical development and provider responsibility
• Administrative, Governmental, and Policy considerations
• Public outreach and education

The CDM’s work in Emergency Management focuses on research, guidance, and education to assist individuals and organizations to best prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the potential effects of all types of disasters and emergencies on a local and global scale. The CDM maintains expertise in all facets of emergency management, especially:

• Emergency management policy and practice
• Risk assessment and hazard mitigation
• Disaster preparedness and response
• Incident management
• Incident and disaster recovery
• Terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and other man-made disasters
• Current research and case review from recent events

Summer Emergency Medicine Fellowship

Every July, the Center for Disaster Medicine hosts a month-long Summer Fellowship for First Year medical students. These students are those that have an interest in Emergency Medicine and/or Disaster Medicine. As a part of this month of learning, the medical students spend time rotating through the Emergency Department at Metropolitan Hospital (NYC Health and Hospitals), observation shifts with Empress Ambulance Services, and take a number of courses (e.g., Basic Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Pediatric Life Support, Prehospital Trauma Life Support, etc.). They also are taught skills in patient assessment, airway management, and intravenous insertion.  The students are also given opportunities to develop and/or be a part of existing research projects.

Immersive and Visionary Medical Technologies (IVMT) Program

The Immersive and Visionary Medical Technologies (IVMT) Program is a cross-functional, multi-institutional collaboration with the Center for Disaster Medicine. Leading experts in simulation training, VR capabilities, disaster medicine, engineering, software development, VR equipment, learning, psychological assessment, and research design and analysis to create a viable, scalable, cutting-edge training and experimentation platform of the future. Learn more about the IVMT program.

Contact

Center for Disaster Medicine
New York Medical College
7 Dana Road, Suite 511
Valhalla, NY 10595
(914) 594-1742
disaster_medicine@nymc.edu