2012 Volume 71 Issue 1 Pages 10-13
The “Disaster Medical Assistance Team” (DMAT) is a team that provides rapid-response medical care (within about 48 hours) to large numbers of victims in mass casuality incidents or when disasters occur. The aim of these activities is to reduce ‘preventable death by disaster’. During the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, many victims suffered ‘preventable death by disaster’ because of inadequate disaster medical management. After this earthquake, medical workers in Japan felt the urgent need to establish a Japanese version of the DMAT. In August 2004, the Tokyo DMAT was established by the Tokyo metropolitan government, thus becoming the first such team in Japan. Moreover, since March 2005, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has initiated training courses for members of the Japan DMAT. As of June 2011, approximately 5300 members make up 882 teams across the country. The 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, known as the Eastern Japan Great Earthquake Disaster, occurred on 11 March 2011. A number of DMAT teams worked hard to respond to the disaster. A total of 380 DMAT teams, comprising 1800 members from around the country, were involved, including our hospital DMAT team. Our team was deployed on the day the disaster occurred. We arrived at Fukushima airport and engaged in the regional transportation of three disaster patients suffering crush syndrome. We participated in the regional transportation of a total of nineteen patients in this disaster. All of our hospital DMAT members must maintain their ability to provide disaster medical assistance and enhance the overall capability of our team. We are willing to become experts in disaster medicine and engage ourselves in support and management across the whole medical response to disaster, not just during the acute disaster phase.
