TY - JOUR T1 - The Canadian Armed Forces medical response to Typhoon Haiyan JF - Canadian Journal of Surgery JO - CAN J SURG SP - S146 LP - S152 DO - 10.1503/cjs.013514 VL - 58 IS - 3 Suppl 3 AU - LCol Erin Savage AU - Maj Michael D. Christian AU - Maj Stephanie Smith AU - Capt Dylan Pannell Y1 - 2015/06/01 UR - http://canjsurg.ca/content/58/3_Suppl_3/S146.abstract N2 - Background: In the setting of international disaster response, an important challenge is determining when it is appropriate to withdraw deployed assets as the acute disaster response transitions to recovery and rebuilding. We describe our experience with real-time data collection during our medical response to Typhoon Haiyan as a means to guide military aid mission parameters.Methods: The operational medical headquarters prospectively developed a database for use in this mission. Mobile medical teams (MMTs) were deployed to provide primary care, and the nurse designated to each MMT was responsible for entering and transmitting data daily to the medical headquarters. Data collected included the MMT location, basic patient demographics, the primary reason for the encounter and any treatment provided. These encounters were then classified as disaster, acute or chronic.Results: Between Nov. 16 and Dec. 16, 2013, medical care was provided to 6596 local nationals; 238 (3.6%) had disaster-related illness or injury, 4321 (65.5%) had acute postdisaster medical conditions and 2037 (30.9%) sought medical care for chronic conditions. Of the 257 patients with traumatic injuries, 28 (11%) had disaster-related injuries and 214 (83%) had acute injuries that occurred postdisaster.Conclusion: The data collected during the mission to the Philippines was compiled with performance metrics from the other Disaster Assistance Response Team components to help advise the Canadian government regarding mission duration. We recommended that data collection continue on all future missions and be modified to provide further information to larger disaster coordination teams, such as the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. ER -