NY Medical College receives state grant for Center for Disaster Medicine

The New York Medical College (NYMC) Center for Disaster Medicine has received a $250,000 state grant for its Center of Excellence in Precision Responses to Bioterrorism and Disasters. NYMC officials accepted an oversize presentation check signed by State Assemblyman Tom Abinanti during a recent event at the college”™s Valhalla campus.

NYMC Center for Disaster Medicine presentation check. — From left: Tom Abinanti; Richard G. Wishnie; Saloman Amar; David S. Markenson; Robert Amler; Renee Garrick, vice dean and chief medical officer for Westchester Medical Center and professor of clinical medicine; and Ronnie Myers, dean of Touro College of Dental Medicine at NYMC.

The Center of Excellence offers education, training, structured simulations, drills and consulting to prepare for bioterrorism and mass casualty incidents along with natural and manmade disasters. Training is offered to first responders and law enforcement along with the business, education and health care sectors.

Among the facilities at the center are sensory deprivation and sensory overload training rooms, a simulated clandestine drug laboratory, a simulated residential apartment, simulated patient rooms and an intensive care unit. Training programs use mannequins to allow for practice of procedures such as airway management and insertion of chest tubes.

The center is funded through the Empire State Development Corporation”™s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation program. The center is one of 11 Centers of Excellence in New York.

“For the past 15 years, this center has really been unique in serving the role of conducting interdisciplinary research, training, technical assistance and educational activities all related to emergency preparedness,” Abinanti said. “To see how far NYMC has come is just amazing.”

Robert W. Amler, vice president for government affairs and dean of the School of Health Sciences and Practice, moderated the event and thanked Abinanti for his longstanding support of NYMC and the center.

Salomon Amar, vice president for research at NYMC and senior vice president for research affairs for the Touro College and University System, which includes NYMC, said, “Today we are here to acknowledge and give thanks to the state legislature for an additional appropriation to make the first step in becoming a national center for disaster medicine.”

David S. Markenson, medical director of the Center for Disaster Medicine explained that in addition to training medical personnel and first responders, the center also helps businesses prepare to cope with a possible disaster and to be able to continue operating after disaster strikes.

Richard G. Wishnie, commissioner of the Westchester County Department of Emergency Services, praised the center as being a prominent center for research both in New York and throughout the country.