ABPS Disaster Medicine study guide
ABPS Disaster Medicine · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
Disaster Medicine certification through the American Board of Physician Specialties is a board credential for physicians who expect to manage patients and systems when demand suddenly outstrips capacity - emergency physicians, EMS medical directors, hospitalists, surgeons, critical care and preventive medicine specialists, and clinicians who serve on deployable teams or in public health roles. The exam is multiple choice and samples the full breadth of the field: preparedness and planning, incident command and multi-agency coordination, hazard and risk analysis, mass casualty triage and surge, prehospital operations, hospital emergency operations including evacuation and supply failure, CBRNE response, communicable disease emergencies, behavioral and vulnerable-population concerns, and the recovery, legal, and ethical questions that follow an event. The ABPS Disaster Medicine study guide has 10 sections and about 2,711 words.
01Disaster Preparedness and Planning
Disaster preparedness rests on a continuous cycle: mitigation → preparedness → response → recovery , with after-action review feeding back into revised plans. Candidates must distinguish the four phases and know which activities belong to each.
298 words, about 1 min02Incident Command, Emergency Management, and Coordination
Incident Command System (ICS) is a standardized, modular, scalable management structure. The five functions are Command, Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance/Administration .
277 words, about 1 min03Hazard Identification, Threat Assessment, and Risk Analysis
Risk analysis combines probability (likelihood) and consequence (impact), often expressed as Risk = Threat × Vulnerability × Consequence. The Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA) is the standard hospital tool, scoring hazards on probability, human impact, property impact, business impact, and preparedness.
277 words, about 1 min04Mass Casualty Triage and Patient Surge Management
Mass-casualty triage rapidly sorts patients by physiologic priority under scarce resources, deliberately shifting from "most ill first" to "greatest good for the greatest number." Know the major systems: START (adult, based on respirations, perfusion, and mental status), JumpSTART (pediatric), SALT (Sort, Assess, Lifesaving interventions, Treat/Transport), and military/care-under-fire systems. Categories are typically Immediate (red), Delayed (yellow), Minimal (green), Expectant (black/blue) .
270 words, about 1 min05Prehospital and Out-of-Hospital Disaster Response
Out-of-hospital response begins with scene safety and hazard assessment -responders must not become casualties. Establish scene command (first arriving unit assumes command until formally transferred) and integrate with fire, law enforcement, and public health.
257 words, about 1 min06Hospital and Healthcare Facility Disaster Operations
Hospitals activate HICS and an incident command center. Know the roles: Incident Commander, Public Information Officer, Safety Officer, Liaison Officer, and section chiefs.
294 words, about 1 min07Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) Events
CBRNE events often present as clusters of similar symptoms with a common time and place. Chemical agents cause rapid onset; biological agents have an incubation period and present days later; radiological events may show no immediate symptoms.
249 words, about 1 min08Public Health, Epidemiology, and Communicable Disease Emergencies
Understand incidence (new cases) vs. prevalence (all cases), attack rate , case fatality rate , basic reproduction number (R0) , and herd immunity .
259 words, about 1 min09Psychological, Behavioral, and Vulnerable Population Considerations
Disasters produce a range of behavioral responses: acute stress reactions , grief , panic (rare), and convergence (people and supplies converging on the scene). Know the phases of disaster behavioral response and that most people recover without formal treatment.
262 words, about 1 min10Recovery, After-Action Review, Disaster Law, Ethics, and Policy
Recovery is the longest phase, restoring infrastructure, services, economy, and psychosocial well-being . Know the roles of FEMA's Public Assistance and Individual Assistance programs, hazard mitigation grants, and the concept of build back better .
268 words, about 1 min