profession
Help Haiti: AMA registers physician volunteers
■ The online registry will be used to help coordinate medical response efforts to the country, which is still reeling from a devastating earthquake.
By Kevin B. O’Reilly — Posted Jan. 28, 2010
Doctors interested in going to Haiti to provide medical assistance can enter themselves in a new volunteer physician registry set up by the American Medical Association and the National Disaster Life Support Foundation.
The AMA plans to use the registry to help coordinate federal government and private-sector medical efforts responding to the devastation caused by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Jan. 12 and was followed by several aftershocks. Almost 200,00 Haitians are injured, the country's government estimates.
"Practicing physicians, we need you," AMA President J. James Rohack, MD, wrote in a blog post. "Two weeks may have lapsed since devastation struck those in Haiti, but let's not forget the hundreds of thousands who are still suffering and need our help."
The registry -- launched Jan. 26 -- is open to all licensed doctors and requests information such as specialty, language skills, availability and previous disaster medicine experience.
The registry is available online (link).
An in-depth Webinar on how medical responders can prepare for working in Haiti is available, along with other resources, at the AMA Web site (link).
