Abstract
Japan’s Doctor Heli (DH) project was introduced in 2001, and disaster medical assistance teams (DMAT) were introduced in 2005. Both initiatives were inspired by the lessons learned from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995. Since then, the use of DH and Self-Defense Force aircraft for air medical transport in response to disasters such as the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 and the Kumamoto Earthquake in 2016 has been shown to be effective but many problems have become apparent. Given the expected Nankai Trough and Tokyo inland earthquakes, it would be beneficial for society to review and share the progress of air medical transport, including DH, during previous disasters. When the number of DH deployments in Japan was still small, plans were formulated to transport patients outside of disaster areas using Self-Defense Force aircraft. However, by April 2022, DH had expanded to include 56 aircraft deployed across all 47 prefectures. Furthermore, the strategy for disaster medical care in Japan has been shifting from “transporting patients from the disaster area to outside” to “injecting resources into the disaster area to respond within the disaster area.” The findings indicate that air medical transport is changing to focus more on DH.
