A new invited article in the August 2008 edition of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery calls on the U.S. medical community to develop a national consensus on ethical guidelines for physicians who care for patients, victims, and casualties of disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, or terrorist attacks.

When two catastrophic natural disasters struck within days of each other in May 2008, disaster relief, humanitarian aid, and health officials, as well as members of the news media tapped into a unique set of NASA data products describing the location of the exposed populations.

his week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) held a variety of media briefings related to the California wildfires, but one news conference in Washington, D.C. has raised a few eyebrows. At that news conference, it appeared those asking the questions were reporters, but instead they turned out to be FEMA staffers. The news briefing was a fake. FEMA has apologized, chalking it up to an “error in judgment.”

When disaster strikes, getting care to the victims is at the top of everyone's attention. But who will provide that care" In two studies to be presented at the 2007 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Annual Meeting, researchers examined the factors that might affect whether healthcare workers and support staff would report to work during a disaster.