Canadian journal of surgery. Journal canadien de chirurgie
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Observational Study
The Canadian Armed Forces medical response to Typhoon Haiyan.
In the setting of international disaster response, an important challenge is determining when it is appropriate to withdraw deployed assets as the acute disaster response transitions to recovery and rebuilding. We describe our experience with realtime data collection during our medical response to Typhoon Haiyan as a means to guide military aid mission parameters. ⋯ The data collected during the mission to the Phillippines was compiled with performance metrics from the other Disaster Assistance Response Team components to help advise the Canadian government regarding mission duration. We recommended that data collection continue on all future missions and be modified to provide further information to larger disaster coordination teams, such as the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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Traumatic injury is increasing in importance in all settings and environments worldwide. Many preventable deaths are from conditions that are common and treatable. However, as potentially lethal injuries often induce progressive and frequently irreversible physiologic decline, the timing of interventions is critical. ⋯ Early experience has shown that these techniques are practical and considered valuable. Their translation to regular practice, however, will require the immediate availability of appropriately trained remote experts willing to serve as mentors. Acute care trauma specialists are acclimatized to responding to out-of-hospital consultations and assuming overall responsibility for critical physiology and transport and may serve as the backbone of such a national/ international call response initiative.