Dr. Weireter leads emergency preparedness course in Saudi Arabia

Story Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:49:00 EDT

Leonard J. Weireter Jr., MD, Professor and Arthur and Marie Kirk Family Chair of Surgery and Director of the Level 1 trauma center at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, recently traveled to Saudi Arabia to teach a Trauma Disaster Management and Emergency Preparedness course to the faculty of the King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences in Jeddah. The program is designed to demonstrate how hospitals should respond to a disaster or mass casualty event.

"Such a response is fundamentally different from ordinary, daily hospital operations," Dr. Weireter said. "This course discusses the operational changes that need to be made to mount a successful response."

Dr. Weireter chairs the American College of Surgeons' ad hoc Disaster and Mass Casualty Subcommittee and oversees the program's national and international promulgation. His presentation last month was the first course of its kind offered in the Arabian Gulf Area by the American College of Surgeons.