Review by Journal of the American Medical Association

The principal mission of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine (PDM) is the distribution of information relevant to the practice of out-of-hospital and in-hospital emergency medical care, disaster medicine, and public health and safety. PDM provides an international forum for the reporting and discussion of scientific studies, both quantitative and qualitative, that have relevance to the above practices. It is available in printed form and portions are available progressively on the Internet with translations into multiple languages. The major objectives are: 1) the improvement of the types and quality of the care delivered to patients with perceived medical emergencies and to victims of multicasualty accidents or disasters, including the public health and safety aspects of such events; and 2) the prevention and/or mitigation of the occurrence of such events and of the effects of these events upon the human population and environment. PDM is the official journal of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine, and is part of the glue that holds many of the affiliated organizations, worldwide, together.

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Review of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
JAMA, 03 June, 1998;279:1754-1755.

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine serves as the official journal of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine (WADEM) and the International Society of Disaster Medicine (ISDM). During l997, while in its twelfth volume, WADEM became the solo publisher of this vehicle for the dissemination of scientific information on international emergency medical services and disaster medicine. The National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) parted from Prehospital and Disaster Medicine and WADEM to publish its own journal (Prehospital Emergency Care, reviewed in JAMA 1997;278:1794), geared toward the EMS community of the United States with an emphasis on prehospital issues. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine remains committed to the worldwide development and improvement of emergency and disaster medicine.

Prehospital and Disaster Medicine offers a forum for scientific work, experience, and technology in disaster management and planning as well as emergency care rendered at mass gatherings, disasters, and catastrophic events. This inexpensive journal seeks to improve the knowledge and techniques of resuscitation, life support, and the relief of suffering. The articles are intended to minimize the health impact of future disasters through the retrospective analysis of past disasters. Contributors in the reviewed issues, who came from countries around the world, wrote to foster and improve prehospital care to single individual emergencies and mass casualty situations. Few journals cover disaster medicine. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine therefore fills a niche in the field of mass emergency medical services.

The international editorial board has members who are clinical physicians, academicians, and emergency medical services administrators. Each issue contains information for authors. The statement indicating peer review for submissions can only be found in the Advertising Guidelines, and it does not describe a specific process. Contents consist of original research studies, special reports, theoretical discussions, case reports, and comprehensive reviews. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine uniquely reprints tables of contents from international and foreign language journals that cover similar subjects. The Cumulative Index to the Nursing and Allied Health Literature and Healthstar, a joint effort of the National Library of Medicine and the American Hospital Association, selectively index this established journal.

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