Alumna Susan Briggs, right, can be deployed within 24 hours of a catastrophe to help deliver medical care. Above, she aids victims of the 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran.

Briggs is the supervising medical officer for the International Medical Surgical Response Team (IMSuRT). The 140 volunteers of IMSuRT–including many from the Harvard community–comprise the only rapid-response team within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s National Disaster Medical Service (NDMS), capable of setting up a surgical field hospital anywhere in the world, under almost any conditions. The team was sent to Iran in a joint effort by the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of State.

On her arrival in Bam, Briggs–an attending general and trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)–found a city with no hospitals, no doctors, and almost no roads. The former resort city of about 100,000 people had lost 40 percent of its population. Of those who had survived, nearly all were homeless. In all, nearly three dozen search-and-rescue teams from 27 countries responded to the catastrophe. Team members were called upon to do a range of logistical tasks, which included everything from setting up tents to locating heavy equipment.

"We learned that you better know what you can live without, because you can’t carry it in," she said.

Briggs described her two-week deployment at Bam and other stories from her 30-year career in emergency response to a capacity audience on September 23 at HMS.

Susan Briggs at the HMS talk

"No one can predict the complexity, time, or location of the next disaster, especially disasters involving terrorism," she noted. "But, all disasters have both medical and public health concerns." She said her work in disaster response has given her a heightened respect for the importance of multidisciplinary teams.

"The real difference among disasters is the degree of disruption of medical and public health services, and the amount of outside emergency assistance necessary to respond to the needs of disaster victims," she said.

Briggs began her overseas work as a surgeon for Project Hope, and over the years, has responded to earthquakes in El Salvador, Turkey and Armenia; hurricanes in the West Indies; and a catastrophic train wreck in the former Soviet Union. She and other members of the Metro Boston DMAT were at Ground Zero just hours after the Twin Towers fell.

In the case of every disaster, she said, her objective has always been to do the "greatest good for the greatest number of patients." She discovered, however, that geographic, political, and cultural factors can be significant obstacles to successful response.

"Ethnic challenges were very real for us [in Iran]," she said, including requirements that female physicians and nurses keep their heads covered and remember not to shake hands with Iranian male colleagues. Briggs kept a wool stocking cap handy for the 20-degree desert nights, and cut up slings to make headscarves for female team members to wear during the scorching days.

She noted that many segments of Harvard University, including HSPH and HMS, contribute to a rich tradition in disaster relief.

"We should be proud as a community that Harvard is a leader in the world in disaster response," said Briggs.

--PHC