On the front page...
Already vaunted for the power of its head, NIH got
a chance to show the strength of its heart in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina, which devastated parts of four southern states
on Aug. 29. Within a day of the storm's passage, NIH director Dr.
Elias Zerhouni convened the first in a series of emergency meetings
at which clinical directors, nursing and administrative leaders
rapidly hammered out ways NIH could help.
With the calm but urgent tone of the East Baltimore emergency room
physician he once was, Zerhouni and other NIH officials outlined
a strategy that took shape through the Labor Day weekend and into
the following week:
Continued...
- NIH, in partnership with the American Association of Medical
Colleges, created and activated a telemedicine brain trust for
specialty medical consultation over a telephone hotline;
- An advance team and medical team numbering about 50 people
deployed temporarily to a field hospital in Mississippi but most,
except commissioned officers, were recalled after 5 days.
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A cadre of NIH volunteers boards buses outside
the Clinical Research Center on the morning of Sept. 4. |
- The Clinical Center made available 100 beds of "surge capacity" for
patients who might need to be transferred from the affected areas,
including young cancer patients who would need specialized services.
Commissioned Officers Focus on Readiness, Heed Call
of Katrina
By Jan Ehrman |
When a number of NIH clinicians, nurses and other commissioned
officers headed to the Gulf coast recently to help displaced
residents survive the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it
was only the most recent deployment in an unusually responsive
year. The group briefly staffed a 250-bed hospital in Meridian,
Miss.
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Cdr. Chris Chamberlain |
"It's what many members of the Commissioned Corps have trained for. The mission, as always,
focuses on readiness. Maintaining physical fitness, being fully immunized and having the training
and readiness needed when deployed into an emergency area-as we are now demonstrating with
Katrina-is paramount," said Dr. Richard Wyatt, executive director of NIH's Office of Intramural
Research and a rear admiral in the corps.
With a rich past tracing back to the late 1700's, the corps
has historically lived up to its mission statement: "protecting,
promoting and advancing the health and safety of our nation." Stints
in recent times have taken NIH and other PHS officers to
such war-torn regions as Afghanistan, Africa, Iraq, and now,
the remnants of Katrina.
Overall, there are about 6,000 commissioned officers in
the Public Health Service, with the largest number coming
from the Indian Health Service, followed by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration
and the Bureau of Prisons. Presently, 400 NIH commissioned
officers, including 111 from the Clinical Center and 78 from
the National Cancer Institute, are part of the structured
force. Among the 400 at NIH are 168 medical officers and
approximately 100 nurses, but also veterinarians, pharmacists,
dietitians, environmental health specialists, therapists,
sanitary engineers and computer specialists, according to
Kenneth Diepold, NIH liaison to the Surgeon General.
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| Chamberlain (l)
and colleague Dr. Hakson Jin are among 6,000 PHS commissioned
officers in the Public Health Service. At right, read
about their preparedness. |
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NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci spent 27 years in the corps.
NIH deputy director for intramural research Dr. Michael Gottesman
is also a retired CO. Presently active NIH officials in the
corps include CC director Dr. John Gallin, NIDDK deputy director
Dr. Griffin Rodgers, NIDCR deputy director Dr. Dushanka Kleinman,
NINDS clinician Dr. Mark Hallett and Dr. Harvey Klein, chief
of the CC department of transfusion medicine.
During the presidency of John Adams in 1798, corps officers
provided care for sick and injured seamen in Boston. Today's
mission is no less vital. "We saw it first-hand recently
in Asia, when 30 such officers were deployed to provide aid
and care to victims of the tsunami disaster," said Wyatt,
who is a 34-year corps vet. "And now we have this type of
situation again, with Katrina."
Commissioned officers at NIH have a dual role-they perform
their main job, conducting research, treating patients and
providing other public health activities. They also have
to be ready to respond to emergencies.
Cdr. Chris Chamberlain acknowledges her twin functions.
A CC pharmacy specialist and 18-year veteran of the corps,
she makes countless daily contributions at NIH-serving as
a liaison between the pharmacy department and patients undergoing
treatment. While providing direct assistance to the Transplant
and Autoimmunity Branch, NIDDK, her duties range from assisting
with the dosing of anti-rejection medication for immunosuppressed
patients to making hospitals rounds with physicians. She
also routinely conducts follow-ups with outpatients. The
importance of her job notwithstanding, Chamberlain knows
that if a natural disaster strikes, she could be whisked
away and deployed elsewhere in a moment's notice. "It's both
a challenging and a rewarding position," she said. |
"I encourage you to be creative," Zerhouni urged at that first meeting, while a large-screen
TV tuned to CNN silently broadcast images of the unfolding drama in New Orleans. "We must help
people who are hurting now. It is the right thing to do. Let's do it the right way — the
NIH way."
More than 1,000 NIH'ers from a staggering breadth of disciplines
and backgrounds volunteered in the storm's aftermath. In addition
to physicians and nurses they included maintenance workers, officers
from the NIH Police, who needed to be deputized as U.S. Marshals
in order to serve, procurement officials and public affairs staff.
Volunteers, who had to be in good physical condition, were asked
to commit to tours of 2 full weeks, and to be immunized against
hepatitis and tetanus. Those who could not be deployed had the
option at least of sending prayers; special multi-faith services
were held in the CRC 7th floor chapel Sept. 6-9.
Whether they stayed and prayed or delivered first aid, NIH'ers
were quick and generous in their response. Said one witness to
the high-level conferences, "No one at NIH was being obstructionist."
NIH not only marshaled its own resources in response to Katrina,
but also reached out to long-time partners at AAMC, Suburban Hospital
and the National Naval Medical Center to see how best to accommodate
the unfolding situation. Medical partners included volunteers from
Duke University and Johns Hopkins University. Because of the sudden
need to cooperate with nonfederal allies, legislative experts at
NIH quickly worked with Congress to smooth the way to signing on
volunteers.
As head of the NIH Command Center, Zerhouni created a number of
ad hoc working groups to oversee the various facets of NIH's response.
Concluding one of the earliest emergency sessions, he said, "I
thank you for all those out there who may not have a home tonight." He
added, in one of a series of urgent email letters to all employees
in the tragedy's first week, "We will need to set aside business
as usual in this unusual time."
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| NIH director Dr. Elias Zerhouni (c, in ballcap)
and CC director Dr. John Gallin (on the director’s left)
meet with NIH group that left Sept. 4. They include (from l)
Mark Ritter, Maryland Pao, Melanie Bacon, Jean Murphy, Mike
Polis, Amy Garner-O’Brien, Jim Shelhamer, Alice Pao,
James Gibbs, Deb Gardner, Bob Danner, Mary Sparks, Sashi Ravindran,
Grace Kelly and Susan Hoover. |
Key players in the initial response included Dr. Pierre Noel of
the CC's department of laboratory medicine, who was put in charge
of NIH's field hospital contingent. He was assisted by Elaine Ayres
of the Clinical Center, a PHS logistics expert. Capt. Diane Walsh
of the CC nursing department served as NIH liaison with the HHS
Secretary's Operations Center.
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Ten NIH Police officers went to the Gulf,
including (kneeling, from l) Cpl. Alexander Negretti, Sgt.
Fredric Boyle, Cpl. Wallace Carter and Cpl. Gary Pickering.
Standing are (from l) Cpl. Dexter Moore, Cpl. Thomas Cioffi
Sr., MPO James Pineiro, MPO Craig Rowland, MPO Herman Bartz
III and Lt. James Skyrm. |
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NIH’ers handle phones
in Bldg. 10 medical board room. They are (from l) Dinora Dominguez,
Laura Lee, Dora Bell, Nancy Jenkins, Dr. Fred Gill and Kathy
Bronson. |
Among the first NIH'ers on the ground in Katrina's wake were ORF
engineer John Walker, who was deployed Sept. 3, and NIDDK nephrologist
Dr. Jeffery Kopp, who left for Baton Rouge with a cadre of 38 PHS
officers on Sunday, Aug. 28. Other early responders included disbursing
officer William Kelley of the Office of Logistics and Acquisition
Operations, Maj. Ophus Robinson of the NIH Police and Lt. Chris
Mattingly, an EMT with the Division of Fire and Rescue Services.
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| Parting was tough for many who responded.. |
As the Katrina response unfolded, the NIH home page on the web served
as a reliable source of updates, including where to send cash. The
annual Combined Federal Campaign debuted early, on Sept. 2, in order
to accommodate donations, and the NIH R&W Association instituted
a Hurricane Relief fund. NIH and its partners also expanded the medical
consultation hotline to include information for patients in the region
devastated by Katrina. Consultations were available in environmental/
toxic concerns, infectious diseases, tropical/ geographical medicine,
ophthalmology, HIV/AIDS, psychiatry, cardiac/pulmonary diseases and
cancer, among other topics.
Zerhouni hinted that the many offers by NIH'ers to open their
homes to people dislocated by Katrina might eventually be taken
up. "This will be a long and difficult period for those who have
suffered so much," he said in an all-hands email Sept. 1. "We will
have many opportunities to contribute to the rebuilding process
over the months ahead. I am grateful for your commitment." 
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