The past two decades have evidenced that natural and political forces challenge us to prepare our medical and public health capabilities to respond to a spectrum of horrific events. Wars, tsunamis, terrorist attacks, pandemics, and ecological changes are but some of the events that have and will continue to place our populations at risk and our responders in harm's way. This text, the Handbook for Pandemic and Mass-Casualty Planning and Response, has captured the lectures and teachings of an extraordinary 12-day NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Slavonski Brod, Croatia, in late 2011, the purpose of which was to address the medical and public health response to disasters. The intent of this handbook is to offer the disaster medicine professional community writ large the information and tools to better prepare, individually and collaboratively, to mitigate mortality and morbidity when catastrophe occurs.

The book is divided into three sections. Section One, The Context of Catastrophic Health Planning, begins with chapters and case studies on curriculum and methods of preparing the disaster response. It introduces MRMI—Medical Response to Major Incidents—an interactive and standardized postgraduate course developed by an international group of experts within the European Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery. This and subsequent chapters provide a context that emphasizes both rigorous and standardized cross-disciplinary training, which is critical as global disasters necessitate a surge in response from multiple regions and countries and require swift, efficient, and aggregate capabilities as catastrophes unfold. Moreover, despite the disruption associated with mass-casualty events, we are reminded that governments and health professionals must ensure that medical and humanitarian efforts are guided by ethical principles and that risk communication and trustworthy information can result in an empowered and resilient population in the period after the disaster.

Section Two, Principles of Response to Catastrophes with Mass Casualties, offers chapters addressing specific treatment guidelines as well as medical and surgical practices. It presents information on amputation and on burn and blast injuries; it provides triage guidelines, treatment algorithms, and principles of mass-casualty planning. Charts and images are effective adjuncts to the textual material in these chapters.

Section Three, Communication and Information Sharing, provides both practical and theoretical treatises on the issue of communication. Aggregating an effective response requires more than real-time data streaming. More essential is the need to identify and correctly position—in advance—the networks and collaborative structures that must work together and share capabilities. This important teaching effectively loops us back to the beginning section: for us to be effective we must work together seamlessly.

It is in this spirit of the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme that we offer this book, the Handbook for Pandemic and Mass-Casualty Planning and Response.