Database of Health Workforce Innovations
693
Medical and Public Health Coordination following the 2016 Earthquake in Japan
The DMAT is one of the disaster medical relief teams which responds from the onset of a disaster for a couple of days until other disaster medical relief teams arrive. The DMAT consists of mostly five to six members that include a doctor, a nurse, and a logistician.
A total of 466 DMAT teams and 2,071 DMAT team members were deployed to
the Kumamoto area, and 1,894 disaster medical relief teams and 8,471 disaster medical relief team member deployments followed. The DMAT established a medical coordination command post at several key disaster hospitals to designate medical coverage areas. The DMAT evacuated over 1,400 patients from damaged hospitals, transported medical supplies to affected hospitals, and coordinated 14 doctor helicopters used for severe patient transport. To keep constant medical and public health operations, DMAT provided medical coordination management until the local medical coordination was on-track.
A total of 466 DMAT teams and 2,071 DMAT team members were deployed to
the Kumamoto area, and 1,894 disaster medical relief teams and 8,471 disaster medical relief team member deployments followed. The DMAT established a medical coordination command post at several key disaster hospitals to designate medical coverage areas. The DMAT evacuated over 1,400 patients from damaged hospitals, transported medical supplies to affected hospitals, and coordinated 14 doctor helicopters used for severe patient transport. To keep constant medical and public health operations, DMAT provided medical coordination management until the local medical coordination was on-track.
- Solidarity staffing (eg deployments to/from other jurisdictions)
- Cross-sector staff deployments
- Other
- Nurse Specialists*
- Nurses - Licensed Practical
- Nurses - Registered
- Physicians - Emergency
- Physicians - Intensive Care
- Physicians - Primary/Family
- Physicians - Specialists
- Other Health Care Workers
The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake (Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan) occurred with two sets of major earthquakes. The first major earthquake occurred on April 14th with a 6.5 magnitude and the second occurred on April 16th with a 7.3 magnitude. Both earthquakes occurred in the center of Kyusyu Island, and the depth of origin was about 10km deep. There was no tsunami from this earthquake, but shaking near the epicenter was huge and resulted in the collapse or damage of houses and buildings. As a result, 82 people lost their lives, 619 people were severely injured, 1,433 had minor injuries, 1,216 houses were completely collapsed, over 700 evacuation shelters were established, and over 11,000 people were evacuated from their homes at one time.
- Critical Care
- Emergency Medical Services
- Hospitals
- Public Health
Learning from a prior earthquake led to the establishment of formal DMAT teams in Japan
Formal Strategy
Kondo, H., Koido, Y., Kawashima, Y., Kohayagawa, Y., Misaki, M., Takahashi, A., Kondo, Y., Chishima, K., & Toyokuni, Y. (2019). Consideration of Medical and Public Health Coordination - Experience from the 2016 Kumamoto, Japan Earthquake. Prehospital and
Hisayoshi Kondo, MD, PhD
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Disaster Medical Center of Japan
Asia
Japan