Medical Director, Northwell Health Emergency Preparedness Associate Medical Director, Northwell Center for EMS Attending Physician, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine Assistant Professor, Pediatrics (Emergency Medicine)

Dr. Matthew Harris is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine and EMS Physician with Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, NY). Dr. Harris is triple-board certified in General Pediatrics, Pediatric Emergency Medicine, and EMS/Disaster Medicine. Involved in EMS since 1998, Dr. Harris has volunteered as an EMT, paramedic, and EMS physician. He serves as the medical director for the Cohen Children’s Medical Center Pediatric Critical Care Transport team and as Associate Medical Director for the Northwell Center for Emergency Medical Services. He sits on the New York State EMS for Children Advisory Committee, and has held key leadership positions in the American Academy of Pediatrics and National Association of EMS Physicians. His key foci of interest is in prehospital and interfacility transport of critically ill or injured children, and pediatric readiness.

Topic: The Building Blocks of a Pediatric MCI Guideline
Mass events involving pediatric patients have become more common in the United States. Pediatric readiness for mass events is variable, for both community centers and large children’s hospitals alike. Preparing your hospital for such high acuity low frequency events requires a multi-disciplinary approach, a strong understanding of your institution’s capabilities, and strong connections with external resources and your local children’s hospital. In this presentation, we will walk through the essential building blocks of a Pediatric Mass Casualty Incident response program, with a particular focus on education, identification of key stakeholders, and the value of robust and frequent drills.

Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine
Yale University School of Medicine

Mark X. Cicero, MD, FAAP, FAEMS takes care of patients in the emergency department of Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, where he ensures that patients and families will receive a high level of care. “Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital is well integrated with a terrific team of nurses, residents, fellows and allied health professionals. Patients benefit from our team effort and are a part of that team,” he says. Dr. Cicero is board certified in pediatrics, pediatric emergency medicine, and EMS.

An associate professor of pediatrics (emergency medicine) and of emergency medicine at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Cicero focuses his research on how children are treated during disasters. “Small- and large-scale disasters over the last 20 years have included disease outbreaks, terrorist attacks and gun violence. These events consistently show that we need to do a better job caring for kids in disasters,” he says. His contributions have included the publication of original research about disaster medicine education and response strategies.

Title: Pediatric Disaster Readiness: Federal, State, and Local Partners Collaborating in Axles, Hubs and Spokes
During this presentation Dr. Cicero will define the current state of national pediatric disaster preparedness work and differentiate work done by federal agencies, non-profit groups, state and local agencies. Additionally he will describe complementary efforts for pediatric preparedness and response.

Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Director of Prehospital and Trauma Services, Johns Hopkins Pediatric Emergency Department
Associate State Medical Director for Pediatrics, Maryland Institute for EMS Systems

Dr. Anders is a pediatric emergency medicine physician and EMS physician in Baltimore Maryland. For the past 20 years, she works clinically at Johns Hopkins Hospital Pediatric Emergency Department and in EMS oversight at Maryland’s state agency. Key EMS research topics include pediatric hospital capacities and EMS destination choices and pediatric out of hospital cardiac arrest care.

Title: The Pediatric Hospital Bed Crisis and Management During Surge
Pediatric hospital bed numbers have declined about 30% across the US over the past 20 years. As a result, the distance from a scene to the closest pediatric inpatient site has gotten longer and the likelihood that a bed will be open has gotten smaller. The pediatric bed crunch has reached a crisis in many parts of the US – and there is little room for expansion during times of surge. In this presentation, hear the story of Maryland’s C4Pediatrics during the pediatric respiratory “triple-demic” which occurred in 2022. Dr. Anders will share lessons learned out of that surge and how Maryland is leveraging those lessons to prepare for the future.

Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
Senior Advisor, Terrorism and Disaster Program, National Center for Child Traumatic Stress at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Dr. Merritt “Chip” Schreiber is Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Lundquist Institute and Senior Advisor, Terrorism and Disaster Program, National Center for Child Traumatic Stress at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He serves as the Lead for the Mental Health Workgroup for the Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management (WRAP-EM) and is the Chair of Disaster Response for the California Psychological Association.

Dr. Schreiber’s work focuses on developing population-level models of a “stepped continuum of mental health care” (e.g., mental health “first aid”) in mass-casualty disasters and other traumatic incidents. He also works on enhancing resilience and response of emergency disaster medical workers, pre-hospital first responders, and others, using an evidence-based model.

As a result of this work, Dr. Schreiber has developed varied tools and a pediatric disaster mental health CONOPS designed to provide population level response tactics to all-hazard events impacting children, youth and families. This includes the PsySTART Mental Health Incident Management System and a stepped “triage to care” of at-risk pediatric patients and emergency medical responders. He is also the developer of “Anticipate, Plan and Deter,” a disaster medical provider resilience system and “Listen.Protect.Connect” family to family model of Psychological First Aid.

Dr. Schreiber has received: the Joint Meritorious Service Medal serving as an USPHS Reserve Officer on detached service to NORAD-USNORTHERN Command, the American Psychological Association Presidential Citation for 9/11 response and CPA Distinguished Humanitarian Award. He previously served on the HHS Secretary’s Advisory Board on Emergency Public Information and Communications. He deployed for HHS to Miramar for the COVID1-19 response effort. He recently received the HHS Civilian Covid Response Medal for his deployments in support of NDMS response to COVID-19 Miramar MCAS. He was part of the Assistant Secretary of Health’s Team Award for the Maui Wildfire Response by HHS.

Title: Toward the Way Forward in Pediatric Disaster Mental Health
Dr. Schreiber will discuss the current status of pediatric disaster mental health and a vision for the future.