Disaster Medical Assistance Team
The Disaster
Medical Assistance Team (DMAT OH5) was developed and sponsored
by GDAHA in 1991. It is now part of the
Department of Health & Human Services National Disaster Medical
System (NDMS).
The NDMS
is a federally coordinated system that augments the nation's
medical response capability. The overall purpose of the NDMS
is to supplement an integrated national medical response capability
by assisting state and local authorities with the medical impacts
of major peacetime disasters. NDMS also provides support to the
military and the Department of Veterans Affairs by caring for
casualties evacuated to the U.S. from overseas armed conventional
conflicts. DMAT OH5 continues to recruit and train medical
personnel.
DMAT OH5 and its employees have deployed to multiple
national and man-made disasters such as New York City and
Pennsylvania following September 11, 2001, Hurricanes Fran, Katrina
and Ike, and Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.
