The BMC Advances in Simulation Journal Editorial Board is pleased to announce a call for contributions for a new collection entitled “Simulation for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response”. In line with the saying “Prevention is better than cure”, this special issue is expected to bring together the work from a range of clinicians, educators, and researchers representing many countries, and using any form of simulation in the domain of disaster response or emergency preparedness. Whether you would like to report on innovative work you are doing with your learners using virtual reality or screen-based simulation to help them acquire patient triaging skills, have developed an interactive application to place clinicians in various simulated disaster response situations to test their decision-making abilities, or another type of simulation-based activity, irrespective of the medium used, then we would like to have the opportunity to consider your work. The scope of the type of potential or currently ongoing crisis situations that can be included in this special issue is as broad as you can imagine as long as it eventually relates to health care and simulation in the broad sense of the term, and whether it has already been applied or is under development.
Collection can include the following possible topics:
Preparing to deliver care in high risk environments and conflict zones; keeping healthcare professionals safe during a crisis; being ready to deal with mass casualty incidents; multi-agency crisis response exercises; chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incident response exercises; human factors and teamwork in the context of a crisis situation; systems testing or simulation to learn about logistical aspects of disaster response (Equipment, resources, patient flow, relief…).
