Expertise & Knowledge Sharing

Disaster preparedness and management requires a coalition of public services, medical personnel, and the community as a whole. However, disaster management is often not included in medical school curriculum. As such, DMCEPI created a disaster management elective course for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

The course, Introduction to Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Management, provides conceptual and practical knowledge and application of disaster management and response through a blended interdisciplinary learning module. Teaching approaches include didactics, discussion, and practice-based learning using real-world examples by experts in disaster response and humanitarian health fields.

The course is offered twice per year, in the spring and fall.

Course content includes, but is not limited to:

• Basic lifecycle of disasters 
• Components of disaster management (ICS, NIMS, IAP, etc.)
• Personnel and agencies crucial to disaster management and mitigation 
• Mass Casualty Incidents, management and differences from other types of disasters 
• Public response to disaster and how to effectively communicate with the public in mass disaster situations 
• International disaster management, response and differences from domestic
• Expert panels
• Tabletop scenarios
• Critical skills training in Northwestern University's Simulation Lab

Course speakers include, but is not limited to:

• Northwestern University/Northwestern Medicine
• Chicago Police Department/Chicago Fire Department/Office of Emergency Management and Communications/Chicago Department of Public Health
• FEMA
• American Red Cross, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
• Chicago Marathon/Boston Marathon
• EKAB, EENA 
• International Rescue Committee

Northwestern Now Article: New course preps medical students for the next disaster