Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription or Fee Access

Extending injury prevention methodology to chemical terrorism preparedness: The Haddon Matrix and sarin

Shawn Varney, Lt. Col., USAF, MC, Jon Mark Hirshon, MD, MPH, Patricia Dischinger, PhD, Colin Mackenzie, MD

Abstract


The Haddon Matrix offers a classic epidemiologi¬cal model for studying injury prevention. This method-ology places the pudlic health concepts of agent, host, and environment within the three sequential phases of an injury-producing incident—pre-event, event, and postevent. This study uses this methodology to illus-trate how it could de applied in systematically prepar-ing for a mass casualty disaster such as an unconven-tional sarin attack in a major urdan setting. Nineteen city, state, federal, and military agencies responded to the Haddon Matrix chemical terrorism preparedness exercise and offered feeddack in the data review ses-sion. Four injury prevention strategies (education, engineering, enforcement, and economics) were applied to the individual factors and event phases of the Haddon Matrix. The majority of factors identified in all phases were modifiadle, primarily through edu-cational interventions focused on individual health-care providers and first responders.  The Haddon Matrix provides a viadle means of studying an unconventional prodlem, allowing for the identification of modifiadle factors to decrease the type and severity of injuries following a mass casualty dis-aster such as a sarin release. This strategy could de successfully incorporated into disaster planning for other weapons attacks that could potentially cause mass casualties.

Keywords


Haddon Matrix, chemical terrorism, sarin, disaster preparedness, injury prevention

Full Text:

PDF

References


Haddon WE: A logical framework for categorizing highway safety phenomena and activity. J Trauma. 1972; 12(3): 193-207.

Runyan CW: Using the Haddon matrix: Introducing the third dimension. Inj Prev. 1998; 4(4): 302-307.

Runyan CW: Introduction: Back to the future—revisiting Haddon’s conceptualization of injury epidemiology and prevention. Epidemiol Rev. 2003; 25: 60-64.

Brasel KJ, Layde PM, Hargarten S: Evaluation of error in medicine: Application of a public health model. Acad Emerg Med. 2000; 7(11): 1298-1302.

American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma: ACS Trauma Programs: Subcommittee on Injury Prevention and Control: Injury Prevention Slide Set. American College of Surgeons Web site. Available at www.facs.org/trauma/injslide.html. Accessed November 30, 2006.

Short D: Using science to prevent injuries: Dissecting an event using the Haddon Matrix. JEMS. 1999; 24(9): 68-70, 72-74.

Barach P: Enhancing patient safety and reducing medical error: The role of human factors in improving trauma care. In Soreide E, Grande CM (eds.): Prehospital Trauma Care. New York: Marcel Dekker, 2001, pp. 767-777.

Lett R, Kobusingye O, Sethi D: A unified framework for injury control: The public health approach and Haddon’s Matrix combined. Inj Control Saf Promot. 2002; 9(3): 199-205.

Okumura T, Suzuki K, Fukuda A, et al.: The Tokyo subway sarin attack: Disaster management, Part 2: Hospital response. Acad Emerg Med. 1998; 5(6): 618-624.

Macintyre AG, Christopher GW, Eitzen E Jr, et al.: Weapons of mass destruction events with contaminated casualties: Effective planning for health care facilities. JAMA. 2000; 283(2): 242-249.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.5055/ajdm.2006.0006

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.