The Roles of Pharmacists in Disaster Health Management

Disasters significantly impact the welfare of communities and the patient demographic of disaster-affected individuals is shifting from those with acute injuries to exacerbations of chronic diseases. Disaster health management needs to provide an interprofessional approach to addressing the health and welfare of those adversely affected in a disaster. Pharmacists are the most widelydistributed healthcare provider in the community and are often on the coal-face of providing continuity of medication care in disasters. However, to-date their roles in disasters have not been well understood or integrated into the broader disaster management team.