Pre-congress Workshops

WADEM is pleased to announce the pre-congress workshops that will take place on Friday, 2 May. The workshops are organized WADEM’s partners and its Special Interest Groups (SIGs): Infectious Diseases, Primary Care/Mass Gathering Medicine, and Counter-Terrorism Medicine. Registration information will be posted to this page soon!

• Research Design Canvas Workshop for Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management
• Infectious Diseases for the Disaster Medicine Professional
• Fusing Primary Care and Mass Gathering Medicine: A Hands-On Workshop in Multidisciplinary Practice
• Safeguarding Health Care: A Prescription for Securing Medicine’s Digital Frontier

---

Research Design Canvas Workshop for Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management

Co-hosted by the University of Alberta, WADEM, and the World Health Organization Centre for Health Development (WHO Kobe Centre), participants enter with a research idea, and exit with a research protocol. The workshop uses the novel Research Study Design Canvas – a poster. Participants are given a series of step-by-step interactive lessons and ample time to work on their own projects with help from research experts in Disaster Medicine and Health Emergency / Disaster Risk Management (EDRM).

Participants will also learn how the WHO Health EDRM Research Network and the WHO Guidance on Research Methods for Health EDRM can help them build research capacity, actions, and resilience in their own countries.

• Dr. Jeffrey Franc, University of Alberta; Prehospital and Disaster Medicine
• Dr. Ryoma Kayano, WHO Kobe Centre
• Prof. Virginia Murray, UK Health Security Agency
• Dr. Qudsia Huda, Head of Disaster Risk Management and Resilience Unit in the Health Emergency Program of WHO
• Prof. Paul Barach, Thomas Jefferson University

---

Infectious Diseases for the Disaster Medicine Professional

Hour 1: Emerging Infectious Diseases

• Outline of the major diseases of pandemic concern in the last five years (Ebola, Mpox, Lassa Fever).
• What are diseases forecast to be of concern in the next five years?
• How climate change increases the range of diseases, affects your local ER and public health, and impacts pandemics.

Hour 2: Travel Medicine for the Disaster Medicine Professional

• What are the major diseases of consideration by geographical location when deploying internationally to disaster zones (e.g., Malaria, Cholera, Yellow Fever, Dengue, TB, STIs)?
• What are the precautions to be taken (Vaccinations, Chemoprophylaxis, Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions)?
• What are the time frames and pitfalls of managing fever in the post-deployment period?

Hours 3 & 4: Bio Attack Agents and Case-based Scenarios

• A review of a series of bio-attack agents using interactive case-based scenarios. Designed for the audience to take part in semi-tabletop exercises, think through a differential diagnosis, and outline the next steps in medical management, quarantine, and from a health system point of view.
• Overview of the CDC’s Bio Attack Agents – Categories A, B, and C.
• What are the major agents of concern, and how to think through an agent that is communicable versus a toxin-related disease? What are the major chemoprophylactic agents for selected diseases, and when to use them?

---

Fusing Primary Care and Mass Gathering Medicine: A Hands-On Workshop in Multidisciplinary Practice

This workshop will use table-top exercises (TTX) to showcase primary care and mass gathering medicine. It is targeted at primary care professionals (e.g., general practitioners, pharmacists, social workers, nurses, etc.) and mass gathering medicine professionals that work or volunteer at large-scale events.

Learning Objectives:

• Developing an understanding of the different types of clinical presentations at mass gathering events and how primary care can contribute to management.
• Apply multidisciplinary practice in a simulated mass gathering scenario.
• Develop an understanding of primary health, mass gathering health, and how these areas intersect.

---

Safeguarding Health Care: A Prescription for Securing Medicine’s Digital Frontier

Hour 1: Health Care Cybersecurity – Where Bits and Bytes Meet Flesh and Blood

Moderator: Ryan Hata, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Chair, WADEM Counter-Terrorism Medicine SIG

• Richard Staynings, MS, Chief Security Strategist, Cylera & Teaching Professor, University of Denver
• Christian Dameff, MD, Co-Director of the UCSD Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity

A review of the evolution of healthcare cybersecurity focusing on specific medical device vulnerabilities, ransomware-associated attacks, clinical infrastructure security, and key foundational concepts of connected healthcare delivery, this talk will present the epidemiology and impact of this increasingly prevalent problem. Distinct differences between prolonged network downtime and conventional disasters will be highlighted and the growing body of peer-reviewed literature on clinical outcomes in the setting of cybersecurity incidents will be showcased.

Hour 2: Digital Disease – Live Ransomware Clinical Simulation

Moderator: Christian Dameff, MD, Co-Director of the UCSD Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity

• Claire Soria, MD, Assistant Professor, UC San Diego
• Nico Kahl, MD, Clinical Informatics Fellow, UC San Diego
• Marshall Freiden, MD, Clinical Informatics Fellow, UC San Diego

This session will feature a live clinical simulation scenario tasking an emergency medicine-trained clinician to address patient care challenges arising from a cybersecurity incident. Consisting of a combination of high-fidelity simulation tools, standardized patient actors, and one game but unwitting volunteer, this exercise will challenge the participant to manage atypical clinical situations without the ability to rely on connected medical technology or diagnostics. The exercise will take approximately 30 minutes and will be followed by a structured debrief where the moderator will review the exercise with the volunteer and explore the thought patterns, clinical choices, assumptions, and pitfalls revealed by the scenario.

Hour 3: Advancing Healthcare Ransomware Resiliency and Response

Moderator: Ryan Hata, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Chair, WADEM Counter-Terrorism Medicine SIG

• Christian Dameff, MD, Co-Director of the University of California San Diego Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity
• Jeff Tully, MD, Co-Director of the University of California San Diego Center for Healthcare Cybersecurity
• Grant Madden, Emergency Manager for the UCSD Healthcare Ransomware Resiliency and Response Program
• Isabel Straw, MBBS, PhD University College London (Tentative)
• Natalie Sullivan, MD, Assistant Professor, the George Washington University (Tentative)
• Zach Pope, MD, Clinical Informatics Fellow, University of California, San Diego

This will be a 50-minute round-robin presentation discussing the preparedness and response work completed by UC San Diego’s Healthcare Ransomware Resiliency and Response Program (H-R3P). Dr. Dameff will provide background on the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) as a funding mechanism and describe the H-R3P conception and project aims. A 10-minute question and answer will follow.

Expected Outcomes
The imperative for clinicians, administrators, governmental officials, and other leaders in health care to understand and effectively respond to the increasing challenge of cyberattacks is more important than ever. Through lectures by experts in the field, practical demonstrations, and the introduction of novel and unique solutions to the global threat of health care cyberattacks, this presentation aims to equip healthcare professionals, policymakers, and technology stakeholders with actionable insights and practical guidance to navigate the complex healthcare cybersecurity landscape.