In October 2014, the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in collaboration with the International Medical Crisis Response Alliance (IMCRA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding that they are now putting in effect to build the capacity of medical caregivers in disaster preparedness and response in the Asia-Pacific region.

Both parties will cooperate to create an online education portal for disaster and long-term medical crisis preparedness and response. After the portal is created, it will be pilot tested and later released in the implementation countries of China, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam. IMCRA is dedicated to providing free, easy-access, interactive, native-language, expert medical educational and reference resources to professional caregivers worldwide faced with both sudden and ongoing medical crises.

On 31 July 2016 IMCRA will be conducting its 4th Colloquium and Workshop in Sendai, Japan, a free event titled: The Long-Term Caregiver Experience: Patients, Providers, Pragmatics. The event presents a unique opportunity to capture the learnings of long-term medical caregivers following a disaster, especially those who responded to the great East Japan earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011 and have continued to see patients in these communities during the 5 years since. These caregivers form a special group of practitioners that can offer invaluable insight into long-term care following a disaster based on their own ongoing experiences.

For more details, please visit the event’s Facebook page.