About Us
Our Mission
DMCEPI's mission is to establish within Northwestern Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine a nationally recognized initiative encompassing mass event and disaster management, emergency preparedness and community safety and to work closely with private and public partners to strengthen communities’ awareness, potentially life-saving knowledge and skills, health and safety through knowledge building and collaboration.
Background and Vision
The frequency of disasters, both natural and human-caused, continues to increase locally and globally.
Disasters at local and regional scales have large impacts on cities and their communities across entities of practice (i.e., neighborhoods, hospitals, city and state governments). Guided by our commitment to building safer, stronger communities, Northwestern Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine and George Chiampas, DO, envisioned and created the Disaster Management & Community Emergency Preparedness Initiative (DMCEPI).
DMCEPI forms a cohesive network across private and public partners with the collective goal of preparing for and mitigating natural and human-caused disasters and emergencies and their impacts by leveraging the expertise of stakeholders.
DMCEPI provides education, training, community outreach and "real-world" application to strengthen communities’ awareness and skills in disaster management and emergency preparedness. DMCEPI aims to be a leading resource for local, national and global communities.
The pillars of DMCEPI, which act as overarching goals of the initiative, are:
- Education, Training and Knowledge Sharing
- Community Hospital Engagement
- Community Awareness and Outreach
- "Real-World" Practice and Application
- Internal and External Partnerships
Initiative Goals
Educate, train, and facilitate disaster preparedness and response knowledge sharing among key stakeholders.
Objectives
- Create and implement medical school curriculum
- Create and co-implement healthcare workers curriculum and implementation
- Create and co-implement public and bystander curriculum and implementation
- Advance transdisciplinary and application focused research in collaboration with stakeholders
- Increase funding to scale activities
- Establish a resource hub for stakeholders to access training materials, evidence-based research, reports and policies for knowledge building
Engage with community hospitals on existing disaster preparedness and response practices.
Objectives
- Align with Thorek Memorial Foundation goals
- Perform disaster preparedness needs analysis
- Co-create community hospital preparedness curriculum
- Facilitate training, seminars and events
Establish community awareness and outreach activities.
Objectives
- Manage preparations and support for large-scale community events
- Facilitate training, seminars and events
Engage in "real-world" practice and application with community partners.
Objectives
- Provide best practices and standards across disciplines and entities (government, academia and corporate)
- Models of care for real-world events (mass gatherings, sporting and entertainment events)
- Training, seminars and events
Establish internal and external partnerships.
Objectives
- Utilize Northwestern network (Northwestern Medicine and University) to create and build partnerships that align with initiative goals
- Build upon existing external partnerships and forge additional partnerships that align with initiative goals
