Healthcare workers' willingness to respond following a disaster: a novel statistical approach toward data analysis.

Background: The willingness of healthcare workers (HCW) to respond is an important factor in the health system's response capacity during emergencies. Although much research has been devoted to exploring this issue, the statistical methods employed have been predominantly traditional and have not enabled in-depth analysis focused on absenteeism-prone employees during emergencies. The present study employs an innovative statistical approach for modeling HCWs' willingness to respond (WTR) following an earthquake.

An Integrated and Interdisciplinary Model for Predicting the Risk of Injury and Death in Future Earthquakes.

Background: A comprehensive technique for earthquake-related casualty estimation remains an unmet challenge. This study aims to integrate risk factors related to characteristics of the exposed population and to the built environment in order to improve communities' preparedness and response capabilities and to mitigate future consequences.

Methods: An innovative model was formulated based on a widely used loss estimation model (HAZUS) by integrating four human-related risk factors (age, gender, physical disability and socioeconomic status) that were identified through a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological data.

Promoting public health legal preparedness for emergencies: review of current trends and their relevance in light of the Ebola crisis.

Background: Public health legal preparedness (PHLP) for emergencies is a core component of the health system response. However, the implementation of health legal preparedness differs between low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) and developed countries.

Objective: This paper examines recent trends regarding public health legal preparedness for emergencies and discusses its role in the recent Ebola outbreak.

Knowledge, perceptions, attitudes and willingness to report to work in an earthquake: A pilot study comparing Canadian versus Israeli hospital nursing staff.

Background: Health practitioners are expected to respond effectively to an earthquake event and provide lifesaving treatment to an influx of casualties. Understanding the factors that may influence nurses' willingness to report (WTR) in different social contexts and preparedness approaches is crucial for improving preparedness of medical facilities.

Methods: A questionnaire based on a previously validated methodology was used to assess demographic characteristics, knowledge, perceptions, attitudes and WTR of nurses after an earthquake.

Telecommunications in Israeli field hospitals deployed to three crisis zones.

A field hospital overseas requires various types of communication equipment. This study presents the communications equipment used by three Israeli field hospital delegations to earthquake sites at Adapazari, Turkey, in 1999, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 2010 and Minamisanriku, Japan, in 2011. The delegations to Turkey and Haiti were relatively large (105-230 personnel) and were on the site early (three to four days after each event).

Health Care Workers' Knowledge and Confidence in Personal Protective Equipment During the H1N1 Pandemic in Israel.

Objectives: Healthcare workers (HCW) are at increased risk of infection during pandemics. HCW personal protective equipment (PPE) use has been shown to lower infection rates among HCW and patients. However, low compliance and misuse are frequent.

Evidence-based support for the all-hazards approach to emergency preparedness.

Background: During the last decade there has been a need to respond and recover from various types of emergencies including mass casualty events (MCEs), mass toxicological/chemical events (MTEs), and biological events (pandemics and bio-terror agents). Effective emergency preparedness is more likely to be achieved if an all-hazards response plan is adopted.

Objectives: To investigate if there is a relationship among hospitals' preparedness for various emergency scenarios, and whether components of one emergency scenario correlate with preparedness for other emergency scenarios.

Optimism of health care workers during a disaster: a review of the literature.

Optimism has several orientations. One such outlook is a general tendency to regard the world as a positive place, accepting difficulties as mere challenges instead of impassable barriers. Among health care workers, optimism improves their level of functioning, their patients' satisfaction, and their therapeutic results.

Who is willing to risk his life for a patient with a potentially fatal, communicable disease during the peak of A/H1N1 pandemic in Israel?

Background: The willingness of healthcare workers to risk their lives for a patient with a potentially fatal, communicable disease is a major concern, especially during a pandemic where the need for adequate staffing is crucial and where the public atmosphere might enhance anxiety and fear of exposure.

Objective: To examine the relationships between the willingness of healthcare workers to risk their lives for a patient with a potentially fatal A/H1N1 flu, and knowledge of personal protection against infection, and trust in colleagues, workplace preparedness and the effectiveness of safety measures, during the winter A/H1N1 pandemic in Israel.

Materials And Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to healthcare workers in 21 hospitals in Israel between 26 November 2009 and 10 December 2009 (the peak of the winter A/H1N1 flu outbreak).

[The treatment of anxiety and acute stress reaction (ASR) in civilian casualties in community stress centers (CSC) in the 2nd Lebanon War].

Introduction: The treatment of anxiety and acute stress reaction (ASR) in civilian casualties exposed to continuous missile attacks during Lebanon War II is described in this study. Casualties were treated in community stress centers (CSC) erected ad-hoc, as a result of cooperation between the Mental Health Section of the Home Front Command of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Mental Health Services of the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Emergency and Disaster Management Division of the MOH.

Results: A total of 536 casualties were admitted to the centers.

Impact of pandemic flu training on ability of medical personnel to recognize an index case of avian influenza.

Background: This study investigated the relationship between training programmes for pandemic flu and level of knowledge of health-care professionals with performance in an avian flu exercise.

Methods: Training programmes of all general hospitals in Israel for managing a pandemic influenza were evaluated. Spearman's ρ correlation was used to analyse the relationship between training scores and level of knowledge of medical personnel with performance in an avian flu exercise.

The effectiveness of an educational intervention on clinicians' knowledge of pandemic influenza.

Background: The growing numbers of H1N1 "swine influenza" cases should prompt national health systems to achieve dual preparedness: preparedness of clinicians to recognize and treat cases of human H1N1 flu, and national preparedness for an influenza pandemic. This is similar to recent contingency planning for an avian flu pandemic.

Objectives: To evaluate hospital personnel's knowledge on avian flu (zoonotic, sporadic, pandemic), comparing among nurses, residents and faculty, and between those who attended lectures or other educational modalities targeted at avian flu and those who did not.

The endless differential diagnosis of acute obstructive renal failure: unusual challenges for the sharp-sighted clinician.

Obstruction of urine outflow can result from mechanical blockade as well as from functional defects. In adults, urinary tract obstruction is due mainly to acquired defects, such as pelvic tumors, calculi, and urethral stricture. In childhood it is mostly due to congenital malformations.

The relationship between demographic/educational parameters and perceptions, knowledge and earthquake mitigation in Israel.

Perceptions, knowledge and mitigation are factors that might play a role in preventing injury and loss of life during a major earthquake.(2) Little is known about the relationships between different demographic and educational parameters and these factors. A national representative sample of 495 adults was investigated in order to determine the relationship between demographic and educational parameters in terms of the perceived threat, perceived coping, knowledge and mitigation of earthquakes in Israel.

Back disorders among Israeli youth: a prevalence study in young military recruits.

Background Context: Back problems are reported with increasing frequency in adults and adolescents. Most information is from self-reported questionnaires or studies with small sample sizes. Reports were usually focused on specific diseases and biased toward overdiagnosis.

Preparedness for anthrax attack: the effect of knowledge on the willingness to treat patients.

Little is known about the factors that may impact on the willingness of physicians and nurses to treat patients during a bioterrorism attack. This survey was conducted among 76 randomly selected nurses and physicians in the emergency rooms of three public hospitals in order to analyse the relationship between knowledge, profession and the willingness to treat anthrax. The study finds that the willingness of physicians and nurses to come to work is 50% greater among the group with the highest knowledge about anthrax (P < 0.

Screening for common neurologic diseases among Israeli adolescents.

Neurologic disorders are the common causes of morbidity among adolescents. The estimated prevalence of common neurologic disorders relies on relatively small samples. We aimed to identify the prevalence of common neurologic disorders among Israeli adolescents.

Coexistent pyoderma gangrenosum and tibialis anterior myositis as presenting manifestations of Crohn's disease: case report and review of the literature.

Crohn's disease (CD) is a well defined inflammatory bowel disease. Patients primarily present with abdominal pain and diarrhea, however, extra-intestinal manifestations due to musculoskeletal and cutaneous involvement are seen in a varying range of patients. In this communication we describe a young woman who presented with a severe inflammatory illness that consequently developed into pyoderma gangrenosum, anterior tibialis myositis and arthritis that were all antecedent to the intestinal involvement.