Magen David Adom (MDA) is the coordinator of a project funded by the EC, under Framework program No. 7, Security theme, coordination and support action.

NMFRDisaster - Project overview

A.  Magen David Adom (MDA) is the coordinator of a project funded by the EC, under Framework program No. 7, Security theme, coordination and support action.

B.   The members of the consortium are:

C.The overall objective of the project is to look into the available knowledge / products, see what are the needs of the Medical First Responders to Disasters, and suggest to the EC a roadmap for future R&D.
In the frame of this project, 5 workshops will be conducted:

Work shop 1- Training Methodology and Technology:

                                                                    
Coordinator- SINERGIE 

EMS services spend a considerable amount of money and energy in preparing responders, dispatcher and managerial staff for emergency situations.  
The nature of an emergency situation is that a single stuff member may encounter such an emergency once in his professional lifetime. Although it might be her or his first time in such an event, she or he is required to do it right on the first time. The price of ill performance in an emergency situation is too high.

On the other hand economic considerations make a daily training on this issue impossible.
This workshop will have to deal with questions (among others) such as: training intervals, the most effective mixture between frontal learning and exercises, computer simulators, E learning, training materials.

Work shop 2- The Human Impact of Disasters:

                                                                                 
Coordinator- SINERGIE

The scene of a large emergency or disaster might be overwhelming for the disaster. Freeze reactions, are well know, but at the same time unacceptable for emergency responders. At the same time understanding the dynamics of the single person's response, the group's response and the community response are essential for an effective response.

The objective of this workshop would be to come out with an idea of how to prepare the responders mentally and emotionally to disasters, of course identifying where do we have gaps in knowledge that should be addressed.

Work shop 3- Law and Ethics:

Coordinator: CSSC

Law and ethics are inextricably linked to good public health practice in emergencies. Given the maxim that all disasters are "local" events, state and local public health leaders need a clearly defined set of legal and ethical principles to help them make sound, real-time decisions for allocating scarce resources in a crisis. The all-hazards model of public health preparedness requires that any public health response framework be adaptable to a variety of emergency contexts, ranging from pandemic preparedness to terrorism response to weather-related disasters. Despite the rich literature on legal and ethical dimensions of health emergency, there is still a lack of conceptualization on the new dimension created by world globalization, asymmetric wars, terrorism and post 9/11 scenarios.  In particular, the European Union needs to develop a common understanding among EU member states and neighborhood countries because health emergencies, either natural or provoked, do not know borders. In the absence of the entry into force of the EU Constitutional Treaty, the Commission has taken the decision "to focus on the respect and promotion of fundamental rights for all people and to develop the concept of EU citizenship".

This decision implies that spaces devoted to ethical conversation become paramount in those areas where it is necessary to take forward the political agenda of the Union, this is certainly the case of preparedness to medical disasters. To address this need, the workshop will assemble leading experts to legal, social, ethical implications of health emergencies and ask them to discuss three case studies against the background of the European Charter of fundamental Human Rights (ECHR).

Work shop 4 - Personal Protective Equipment (PPE):

Coordinator: Shield Group Inc.

Medical personnel are required to care for victims that might be contaminated with chemical or radiological materials. In some instances the medical personnel might encounter themselves working in a contaminated area.
At the same time, medical personnel need PPE while dealing with patients suffering from highly contagious diseases or the outbreak of a pandemic.

The PPE used today, especially for chemical incidents is adopted from the equipment used in the chemical industry.

Questions such as: the standard of protection, heat exposure of the user, time of donning on and off the equipment, universal equipment to all hazards, chemical and physical durability of the equipment, should be address among others.

Work shop 5 - Use of Blood and Blood components in disasters:

Coordinator: Magen David Adom

Although medical technology made huge leaps forward in recent years, we still depend on human blood and components to save lives. At the same time limiting factors as the need to test the blood (for type as well as against diseases), refrigerate the units, limited time to process the units, may be a very serious constrain on the capacity to meet the needs for blood in a disaster.
This workshop will have to address issues such as (among others): rapid testing techniques, how to store blood in the field for prolonged periods of time, hoe to transport donated units, how to protect blood units from chemical / biological / radiological contamination.

Those questions will be addressed in order to identify the needs for further R&D.

D.For each of the workshop a coordinator has been assigned.
It's the coordinator's responsibility to organize the workshop, and to invite the relevant experts to participate.
It is highly important that experts representing the needs of the personnel in the field, with valuable experience will participate actively in the workshops.

The following workshops and activities are planned in the framework of the project:

Read More about the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7):