Applying Lessons from Medical Management of Conventional Terror to Responding to Weapons of Mass Destruction Terror: The Experience of a Tertiary University Hospital

This article aims to summarize the accumulating experience of Hadassah University Hospitals in Jerusalem, Israel with ongoing terror attacks. The authors review their ongoing documented data from the first two years of the last wave of Palestinian terror attacks. Injury patterns and epidemiology of 1,916 terror victims are analyzed. The main finding is that terror is associated with significantly more severe and resource-demanding injuries than other forms of trauma. Main lessons and con­clusions from managing this terror wave are presented. The authors believe that preparedness and application of lessons learned from conventional terror will enhance the durability of society against terror associated with weapons of mass destruction.­     

Terror Politics and Medicine: The Role of Leadership

The ongoing intensive wave of terror assaults against Israel is already approaching its fourth year. The endurance of the Israeli population to this hardship can be attributed, to a certain extent, to proficient leadership. Directing a tertiary university hospital, such as Hadassah, throughout this dire period has required distinctive leadership capabilities. Problems such as staff management during crisis, security, provision of information to the public and media, coping with the clinical routine, teaching and research activities and handling the economic burden, were all aspects of hospital administration that had to be taken care of. We believe that the core issue of medical management in time of terror attacks is establishing the right balance between the specific and peacetime routine. The measures taken to deal with these difficulties can serve as a model of contingency management in the field of medicine as well as other areas.‐