WHAT: Eighty Texas Medical Rangers of the Texas State Guard and 80 U.S. Public Health Service regional personnel will use Geiger counters to take radiation readings on mock victims in San Antonio.
WHEN: 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 15
WHERE: The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio — go to the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research
Institute, 8403 Floyd Curl Drive in the South Texas Medical Center
WHO: About 400 volunteers will be scattered about pretending to be radioactively contaminated. The exercise will take place mostly in the lobby of the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute although it may spill over outside. Volunteers will be from the Northside Health Careers High School, the UT School of Public Health San Antonio Regional Campus and the physician assistant studies degree program at the Health Science Center.
Texas Medical Rangers members and U.S. Public Health Service regional personnel will wear official uniforms as they perform the mock evaluations.
Interviewees will include Mike Charlton, Ph.D., assistant vice president for risk management and safety at the UT Health Science Center, and Lt. Col. Peter Forsberg, physician assistant-certified (PA-C) in the UT Health Science Center Department of Surgery/Division of Emergency Medicine and commander of the Texas Medical Rangers Alamo Medical Response Group.
WHY: To test the Texas Medical Rangers’ response capability and provide the members training on mass casualty response.
PARTNERS:
Texas Medical Rangers, Texas State Guard
U.S. Public Health Service
Department of Physician Assistant Studies, School of Health Professions, UT Health Science Center
Northside Health Careers High School, Northside Independent School District
Office of Environmental Health & Safety, UT Health Science Center
UT School of Public Health San Antonio Regional Campus
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $668 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $15.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 23,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and other health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, visit www.uthscsa.edu.