The American Medical Association (AMA) will next week host a free webinar focusing on radiation preparedness in the U.S., as well as the implications and treatment of radiation exposure.
Entitled “Crisis in Japan: Medical and Public Health Implications of a Radiation Emergency” and a response to that nation’s recent nuclear disaster, the two-hour webinar is slated for noon EDT on Tuesday, April 5. Topics to be covered include the different types of ionizing radiation and relative medical implications, diagnosis and treatment considerations of acute radiation syndrome, the necessary steps to prepare for a radiation emergency, and the immediate and long-term public health roles in a radiation emergency. Several medical and public health experts will address these issues, among them Doran Christensen, DO; David Weinstock, MD; Cham Edwards Dallas, PhD; and Mary C.
Selecky. Christensen serves as associate director of the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS), a 24/7 radiation emergency medical response asset of the National Nuclear Security Administration, while Weinstock is currently an assistant professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School as well as medical advisor for the Radiation Injury Treatment Network, a voluntary nationwide consortium of academic medical centers, blood donor centers, and umbilical cord blood banks organized to provide guidance and surge capacity following radiologic events. Dallas is an internationally known expert on toxicology and issues relating to weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and Selecky is the Secretary of the Washington State Department of Health.
In addition to the webinar, the AMA is offering open, online access to articles from
Nuclear Preparedness, a special issue of the issue of the
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness journal. The journal articles may found at www.dmph.org. To register for the webinar, use this link: https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/schedule/display.do?udc=m20k3gqn91v0.
