Amir Khorram-Manesh

Institute of Clinical Sciences Sahlgrenska Academy University of Gothenburg

Amidst the global challenges of the 21st century, an urgent call emerges to redefine global public health in response to the multifaceted threats of climate change, political denial, and systemic barriers. This study employs a critical analysis approach, combining a narrative literature review with Action Research, to assess the health impacts of c...

Health care and health security are the fundamental pillars of disaster preparedness and crisis management. An established routine health care is necessary for any society, enabling full access to care and fulfilling the rights of every individual. Health security, on the other hand, is what a society needs to be flexible in managing an unexpected...

Background Wildfires have escalated into a global threat with profound impacts on health, society, and the environment. The increasing frequency and intensity of these disasters, influenced by climate change and urban expansion, necessitate a comprehensive understanding of their direct health consequences. Methods This study conducted a retrospect...

Sociopathic leadership may not only result in domestic oppression but also in international conflicts, affecting civilian lives internally and globally. In this article, the authors inform the consequences of such Russian-led leadership in previous wars and conflicts to those involved in the current war in Ukraine focusing on the unique and persist...

Historical records confirm the peaceful coexistence of individualsfrom diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. This paper seeksto analyse the enduring conflict between Israel and Palestine as acase in point to illustrate how prolonged conflicts can transformreligions into ideologies fuelling the quest for survival and justice,rendering politica...

The 21st-century global health landscape presents unprecedented challenges, such as antimicrobial resistance, mental health issues, and the rapid spread of infectious diseases due to urbanization and mobility. The Sendai Framework and initiatives such as Singapore's analytics in combating dengue exemplify the push for disaster risk reduction and ad...

This study examines the global health implications of extreme drought events from 2000 to 2023. Utilizing data from the International Disaster Database (EM-DAT), we analyzed the number of people affected and the total deaths attributed to drought. Our findings reveal that over 1.6 billion people have been impacted by drought globally, with Southern...

AIM: Surgeons have historically played critical roles in disaster management, particularly as military and trauma specialists. However, the role of surgeons in disasters has changed over time, with advancements in medical knowledge and disaster response capabilities. Recent public health emergencies and global events have signaled a paradigm shift,...

This study aims to identify different frontline emergency response workforce's perceived knowledge of hazards and their willingness and motivations to go to work during them. An online version of the "Fight or Flight" survey was distributed and collected from Norwegian emergency personnel during the spring of 2023. Findings reveal a gap between the...

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN’s SDG) are a set of actionable frameworks, which can be achieved through collaboration among nations, emphasizing the significant role of leadership. Recent geopolitical trends have spotlighted leaders with pronounced sociopathic narcissistic characteristics, opposing any collaborative approach...

Hospitals are critical infrastructures that must remain operational during disasters, yet they often become disaster targets themselves. This study offers a global retrospective analysis of hospital disasters from 1976 to 2023, drawing on data from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT). Our methodology combines a historical data review with an eva...

Managing disasters and public health emergencies poses a complex challenge, particularly in maintaining the crucial elements of surge capacity, often referred to as the 4S: staff, stuff, space, and system. While discussions surrounding the management of these emergencies typically emphasize their impact on emergency healthcare services, resources,...

The extensive history of pandemics has spanned many centuries, profoundly impacting societies, economies, and public health, and thereby shaping the course of history in various ways. Advances in medicine, science, and public health practices have played a pivotal role in mitigating the effects of pandemics over time. This review explores the scien...

This paper delves into six critical pathways to effectively address the climate crisis: (1) reinventing food systems, (2) preparing for population shifts, (3) upholding human rights, (4) investing in clean energy, (5) educating for a climate-conscious society, and (6) securing financial and political support. It underscores the need to make food sy...

Objective Escalating global challenges such as disasters, conflict, and climate change underline the importance of addressing Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) terrorism for sustainable public health strategies. This study aims to provide a comprehensive epidemiological analysis of CBRN incidents in the Middle East and North Af...

This article is based on the authors' research concerning war and armed conflicts, both authors' experience of global humanitarian assistance, and the second author´s experience of wars and armed conflicts. The authors have no conflicts of interest. Abstract Interstate wars and civilian conflicts result from political decisions that involve innocen...

Background Mass casualty incidents (MCI) pose significant challenges to existing resources, entailing multiagency collaboration. Triage is a critical component in the management of MCIs, but the lack of a universally accepted triage system can hinder collaboration and lead to preventable loss of life. This multinational study uses validated patient...

The European Union has implemented various strategies and policies to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus-19 pandemic and promote recovery. This article reviews the European Union's response and management decisions, examines the public health measures implemented to contain the virus, and explores the Union's economic recovery and support init...

In this editorial, the author argues that social and political values in a democratic United States of America have significant global impacts on the development of justice, human rights, and democracy. Abandoning these values in favor of national interests may result in the development of new undemocratic nations and facilitate the emergence of na...

Abstract: Background: Amidst a rising tide of trauma-related emergencies, emergency departments worldwide grapple with the challenges of overcrowding and prolonged patient wait times. Addressing these challenges, the integration of prehospital intensive care units has appeared as a promising solution, streamlining trauma care and enhancing patient...

(1) Background: Military personnel and veterans meet unique health challenges that stem from the complex interplay of their service experiences, the nature of warfare, and their interactions with both military and civilian healthcare systems. This study aims to examine the myriad of injuries and medical conditions specific to this population, encom...

Public health emergencies, especially pandemics, need to be managed globally, and on several levels, emphasizing the importance of leadership, communication, and synchronization of measures, data, and management plans in contrast to the management of the Coronavirus-19 pandemic, which illustrated diverse strategies employed by various nations. This...

There is evidence globally that the number of sociopathic, narcissistic, and so-called antisocial personality disorders is far more prevalent than expected. Most individuals with such a disorder cause limited harm to society. However, politicians may, through an exaggerated sense of entitlement, grandiosity, sensitivity to criticism, and the hunger...

Mass-casualty incidents and disaster scenarios pose significant challenges for medical facilities , necessitating robust preparedness measures. This study aimed to evaluate the preparedness of a specific medical facility in Poland, using the hospital safety index (HSI). A comprehensive analysis of structural, functional, and organizational factors...

Background Hospitals play a crucial role in responding to disasters and public health emergencies. However, they are also vulnerable to threats such as fire or flooding and can fail to respond or evacuate adequately due to unpreparedness and lack of evacuation measures. The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has emphasised the impor...

Background: The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed unprecedented challenges on the nursing practice, particularly in Poland. Nurses, as crucial healthcare service providers, have faced organisational disruptions, altered working conditions, and heightened professional anxieties. Methods: We undertook a comprehensive survey across al...

The protracted war in Ukraine, sparked in 2014 and persistently escalating, has significantly impacted the country’s healthcare system. It has amplified existing challenges, such as shortages of medical supplies and personnel, outdated infrastructure, and restricted access to healthcare services. Destruction of medical facilities, non-adherence to...

This study evaluates the need for changes in Saudi Arabia's current disaster and emergency management curriculum, incorporating disaster exercises and using the collaborative tool of CSCATTT (Command and Control, Safety, Communication, Assessment, Triage, Treatment, Transport). Several statements were presented among five experts in three rounds of...

Russia’s fear of Ukraine becoming a member of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization catalyzed the current conflict in Ukraine. The invasion also alarmed other countries, such as Finland and Sweden, who have themselves considered a formal partnership with NATO. Russia’s actions to date have created massive instability and pol...

The Multiagency Approach to Disaster Management topic collection, published by MDPI, brings together a diverse array of research articles that delve into the intricacies of multiagency collaboration in the context of disaster management. This compilation of studies provides valuable insights into interagency cooperation’s benefits, challenges, and...

Introduction: This study evaluates the perceptions of preparedness and willingness to work during disasters and public health emergencies among 213 healthcare workers from 10 ministries of health hospitals in the southern region of Saudi Arabia, which is exposed to the risk of disasters such as flash floods in wadis, fires, sandstorms, armed confli...

Introduction: Hospitals are subject to internal and external threats which could necessitate an evacuation. Such evacuation needs deliberate surge and collaboration, particularly collaborative use of community capacities to handle affected patients, personnel, devices, and hospital structures using consensus systems. Therefore, it is crucial to ide...

Introduction: This study measured the impact of virtual three-level collaboration (3LC) exercises on participants’ perceived levels of collaboration, learning, and utility (CLU) at hospitals in the southern region of Saudi Arabia. Our 3LC exercise is a tabletop training tool used to facilitate disaster education and document CLU. This model enables...

Introduction: Saudi Arabia has experienced special challenges calling for effective teamwork in the management of disasters and emergencies, such as wars, earthquakes, and major accidents linked to the Hajj pilgrimage over the years. In 2015, 769 pilgrims died in a crowd stampede during Hajj. The outcome of the incident could have been different if...

Introduction: The current hybrid war in Ukraine clearly shows the impacts of modern warfare on civilians. Infrastructure, including healthcare facilities, energy sources, and every entity supporting the lifeline of the people are under attack, leaving no options but to leave the country for those who can. Since the outbreak of the conflict, over th...

Despite an increasing global demand for the implementation of necessary measures to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the increasing number of disaster and public health emergencies, and the outcomes of recent crises, have proven to be a real obstacle to achieving these goals. The outcomes of several past events, in particular the coron...

Considering the challenges faced during the pandemic, this Editorial offers novel ideas to strengthen health literacy by addressing the availability and quality of health data and enhancing the capacity of PH experts to make informed decisions.

Background: Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the recent Russo-Ukrainian war that started in 2022, were triggers that radically changed the perception of security in the Nordic and Baltic countries. The on-going Russian hybrid war has resulted in a renewed global interest in the safety and security of many countries (eg, the Nordic-Baltic...

Background Climate change has effects on multiple aspects of human life, such as access to food and water, expansion of endemic diseases as well as an increase of natural disasters and related diseases. The objective of this review is to summarize the current knowledge on climate change effects on military occupational health, military healthcare i...

This study aimed to evaluate the development of healthcare teamwork during and after the collaboration tabletop exercises, through observation and interview methods. Integration and maturity theoretical models were employed to explain the collaborative challenges in teams that may suffer from unequally distributed power, hierarchies, and fragmentat...

According to the concept of "flexible surge capacity," hospitals may need to be evacuated on two occasions: (1) when they are exposed to danger, such as in war; and (2) when they are contaminated, such as during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the former, the entire hospital must be evacuated, while in the latter, the hospital becomes a pandemic center n...

Besides the most common causes of death, children under 14 may suffer from the consequences of disasters and emergencies caused by natural and manmade risks and hazards. These incidents may be prevented by proper risk assessment and the prevention of unnecessary deaths by increasing the safety and well-being of children. An increasing number of man...

Background/Introduction One of the most severe outcomes of the Ukraine war has been the systematic destruction of communities resulting in mass migration of people to Poland. Millions of affected people have arrived in Poland as war refugees requiring medical attention from a fragile health care system overburdened by the COVID-19 pandemic. This st...

Background: Hospitals are subject to internal and external threats, which could necessitate an evacuation. Such evacuation needs deliberate surge and collaboration, particularly collaborative use of community capacities to handle affected patients, personnel, devices, and hospital structures using consensus systems. Therefore, it is crucial to iden...

English: This book deals with Military Medicine, introducing the subject in 4 thematic areas. It is in Swedish and its aim is to introduce the subject to young Swedish physicians. Swedish: Denna bok handlar om ett av de äldsta och fortfarande högst aktuella medicinska ämnesområdena: militärmedicin. Läsaren introduceras i militärmedicinens fyra tem...

There are several reasons why war occurs. The most lethal wars are those caused by 1 man’s decisions solely driven by an obsessive need for power. With disregard for International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Convention, these wars, referred to as hybrid warfare, purposefully target civilians directly resulting in millions of deaths, injuries, m...

Background: Emergencies confront civilian and military healthcare providers with medical and hygienic challenges due to the lack of potable water. This pilot study aimed to describe the application of two different methods for microbiological monitoring of water in a harsh environment in terms of performance, ease of use, availability, and the poss...

Organizational sensemaking is crucial for resource planning and crisis management since facing complex strategic problems that exceed their capacity and ability, such as crises, forces organizations to engage in inter-organizational collaboration, which leads to obtaining individual and diverse perspectives to comprehend the issues and find solutio...

This study evaluates the perceptions of preparedness and willingness to work during disasters and public health emergencies among 213 healthcare workers at hospitals in the southern region of Saudi Arabia by using a quantitative survey (Fight or Flight). The results showed that participants’ willingness to work unconditionally during disasters and...

Most hospitals have a contingency plan, based on all-risks and all-hazards assessment principles. However, emerging threats and risks often necessitate a flexible approach to emergency management at several levels of a disaster response system, for example, in hospitals. Sweden, and possibly other countries, has limited possibilities of surge capac...

Background There are different prehospital triage systems, but no consensus on what constitutes the optimal choice. This heterogeneity constitutes a threat in a mass casualty incident in which triage is used during multiagency collaboration to prioritize casualties according to the injuries’ severity. A previous study has confirmed the feasibility...

Introduction Global climate change (global warming) has been identified as the primary factor responsible for the observed increase in frequency and severity of wildfires (also known as bushfires in some countries) throughout the majority of the world’s vegetated environments. This trend is predicted to continue, causing significant adverse health...

Objectives This study aims to develop a theoretical framework for the flexible surge capacity, inspired by existing surge capacity, complexity theory, and collaborative theoretical frameworks, and discuss its implementation and use in emergencies. Study design This was a descriptive study. Methods Theoretical frameworks for surge capacity, the co...

Objectives Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has consumed many available resources within contingency plans, necessitating new capacity surges and novel approaches. This study aimed to explore the possibility of implementing the concept of flexible surge capacity to reduce the burden on hospitals by focusing on community resources to develop home...

Objective In numerous countries, emergency medical services (EMS) students receive curriculum training in effective patient–provider communication, but most of this training assumes patients have intact communication capabilities, leading to a lack of preparedness to interact with patients, who have communication disorders. In such cases, first res...

This paper analyses the effectiveness of self-evacuation activities of population by private vehicle transport from flood hazard areas, aimed at minimising the negative effects of flooding.. The paper relies on a four-step traffic model which is based, inter alia, on the results of questionnaire studies. Moreover, the model takes into account the e...

The COVID-19 pandemic, apart from the main problems concerning the health and life of patients, sparked a discussion about physicians' moral and social professional attitudes. During a pandemic, physicians have the same ethical, moral, and medical responsibilities, however, the situation is different since they are self-exposed to a danger, which m...

(1) Background: Emergencies confront civilian and military healthcare providers with medical and hygienic challenges due to the lack of potable water. This pilot study aimed to describe the application of two different methods for microbiological monitoring of water in a harsh environment in terms of performance, ease of use, availability, and the...

Objective: Summarize the Hybrid War’s core characteristics and humanitarian and medical impacts. Method: A Systematic Literature Review according to PRISMA guidelines, using the following keywords, Hybrid War; Humanitarian Law; Human Rights; Lawfare, and search engines, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Gothenburg University’s database to colle...

United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping is the largest and most visible representation of the UN. It represents a collective investment in global peace, security, and stability. Peacekeepers protect civilians, actively prevent conflict, reduce violence, strengthen security, and empower national authorities to assume these responsibilities. Peacekeepers ar...

Nursing graduates are required to have both excellent theoretical and practical skills that should be used during stressful emergency interventions. Since the received knowledge should be practiced to gain skills and trained to achieve competences, simulation exercises can be beneficial to even reduce the stress that each individual may face during...

Civilian-military collaboration in humanitarian crises has been encouraged globally; however, little is known about their diverse ethical viewpoints towards challenging and critical situations , which may cause difficulties in the partnership, and influence the outcomes of their mutual activities. The aim of this study was to identify the diversity...

Due to the similarity in skills and assets, Civilian-Military collaboration has emerged as one of the most reliable partnerships during the disaster and public health emergency management to address all necessary elements of surge capacity, i.e., staff, stuff, structure (space), and systems. This study aimed to evaluate this collaboration before an...

This study measured the impact of virtual three-level collaboration (3LC) exercises on participants’ perceived levels of collaboration, learning, and utility (CLU) at hospitals in the southern region of Saudi Arabia. Our 3LC exercise is a tabletop training tool used to facilitate disaster education and document CLU. This model enables the practitio...

Thailand is a unique place to visit for its natural environment, culture, and historical heritage, not to mention the warm tropical climate. It is also prone to both natural and man-made disasters, which historically have caused fatalities and structural damage. In the aftermath of the East Indian Tsunami 2004, the high number of deaths, injuries,...

Objective: To examine the possibility of estimating the number of civilian casualties in modern armed conflicts. Methods: A systematic review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, using PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science search engines. The outcome was analyzed using a qualitative...

Civil - Military Cooperation and the impact of Covid-19.

During and following disasters, affected populations are at risk for outbreaks of foodborne diseases, mainly related to unsafe food storage, handling, and preparation, making food safety one of the top public health priorities. Disaster-affected populations often experience food shortages, denial of access to food or inability to safely use it. Tho...

Drought is one of the major natural threats to people's livelihoods and socioeconomic development. Although drought tends to occur less frequently than other hazards, it can result in a larger proportion of the population being affected than by other disasters. Drought may have wide-ranging social, environmental, and economic impacts. Furthermore,...

Disasters are inevitable, but their impact can be minimized. The management of a disaster is multidisciplinary and follows organized rules and international law. There is a need for mutual understanding based on good communication and agreement on definitions to manage disasters successfully. The aims of this chapter are to point out the general pr...

In major incidents/disasters, victims should be evacuated to safe places. A successful evacuation process depends on many parameters, which must be included in a thorough disaster plan. Such a plan is based on risk and vulnerability analyses and identifies appropriate measures for multidisciplinary management of an evacuation. The aim of this chapt...

Recovery and reconstruction (RR) is a dynamic process with an early relief component and a long-term reconstructive one. It needs a flexible strategy based on continuous feedback and needs assessment. Corrective measures must be established according to priorities using a holistic approach. Local, national and international cooperation when needed...

Why the second edition This book was initially produced for an academic program in which the theoretical knowledge was mixed with practical exercises in an environment that allowed mistakes and repetitive learning. However, since 2017, when the first edition of this book was accessible, scholars and managers from diverse countries have welcomed...

Disasters and public health emergencies are increasing. Climate change, transportation incidents, increasing numbers of mass gatherings, chemical and technical incidents, increasing number of armed conflicts and terrorism are some of the major reasons for this increasing pattern. Any of these events may result in severe casualties, destruction of i...