TY - JOUR
T1 - Chicago medical response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti
T2 - Translating academic collaboration into direct humanitarian response
AU - Babcock, Christine
AU - Baer, Carolyn
AU - Bayram, Jamil D.
AU - Chamberlain, Stacey
AU - Chan, Jennifer Lisa
AU - Galvin, Shannon R
AU - Kim, Jimin
AU - Kinet, Melodie
AU - Kysia, Rashid F.
AU - Lin, Janet
AU - Malik, Mamta
AU - Murphy, Robert Leo
AU - Olopade, C. Sola
AU - Theodosis, Christian
PY - 2010/6/1
Y1 - 2010/6/1
N2 - On January 12, 2010, a major earthquake in Haiti resulted in approximately 212 000 deaths, 300 000 injuries, and more than 1.2 million internally displaced people, making it the most devastating disaster in Haiti's recorded history. Six academic medical centers from the city of Chicago established an interinstitutional collaborative initiative, the Chicago Medical Response, in partnership with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Haiti that provided a sustainable response, sending medical teams to Haiti on a weekly basis for several months. More than 475 medical volunteers were identified, of whom 158 were deployed to Haiti by April 1,2010. This article presents the shared experiences, observations, and lessons learned by all of the participating institutions. Specifically, it describes the factors that provided the framework for the collaborative initiative, the communication networks that contributed to the ongoing response, the operational aspects of deploying successive medical teams, and the benefits to the institutions as well as to the NGOs and Haitian medical system, along with the challenges facing those institutions individually and collectively. Academic medical institutions can provide a major reservoir of highly qualified volunteer medical personnel that complement the needs of NGOs in disasters for a sustainable medical response. Support of such collaborative initiatives is required to ensure generalizability and sustainability.
AB - On January 12, 2010, a major earthquake in Haiti resulted in approximately 212 000 deaths, 300 000 injuries, and more than 1.2 million internally displaced people, making it the most devastating disaster in Haiti's recorded history. Six academic medical centers from the city of Chicago established an interinstitutional collaborative initiative, the Chicago Medical Response, in partnership with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Haiti that provided a sustainable response, sending medical teams to Haiti on a weekly basis for several months. More than 475 medical volunteers were identified, of whom 158 were deployed to Haiti by April 1,2010. This article presents the shared experiences, observations, and lessons learned by all of the participating institutions. Specifically, it describes the factors that provided the framework for the collaborative initiative, the communication networks that contributed to the ongoing response, the operational aspects of deploying successive medical teams, and the benefits to the institutions as well as to the NGOs and Haitian medical system, along with the challenges facing those institutions individually and collectively. Academic medical institutions can provide a major reservoir of highly qualified volunteer medical personnel that complement the needs of NGOs in disasters for a sustainable medical response. Support of such collaborative initiatives is required to ensure generalizability and sustainability.
KW - Earthquake
KW - Haiti
KW - Medical disaster
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U2 - 10.1001/dmphp.4.2.169
DO - 10.1001/dmphp.4.2.169
M3 - Review article
C2 - 20526140
AN - SCOPUS:77957275570
SN - 1935-7893
VL - 4
SP - 169
EP - 173
JO - Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
JF - Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
IS - 2
ER -