Disaster Medicine with Dr. Katzer

By Michael Head, UCI School of Medicine

Dr. Katzer is an emergency medicine physician at UCI who also holds a unique federal position within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, tasked with responding to national disasters and special events. To earn this position, Dr. Katzer underwent intense training to become competent in fixed wing air medical evacuation from disaster zones, familiarizing himself with military medical equipment and learning how to manage and treat patients in mobile field hospitals and on transport aircraft. He also received additional training in incident management, mass casualty incidents, logistics, and operations.

For this position, Dr. Katzer is on call for 3 months out of the year to respond across the country and around the world to help those in need. Dr Katzer and his team potentially respond to everything from massive flooding, to natural disasters, pandemics and more. He has put his skills to the test by deploying as part of the medical response to Hurricane Harvey, treating those affected by the massive flooding, high winds and the diseases that emerge following such a disaster. He was also part of the air medical transport response to the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to bring Americans to their home states who were either infected with COVID-19 or under federal Quarantine while having the capability to treat them enroute. Dr. Katzer has also been deployed on two National Special Security Events, working as on-scene medical support in case of mass casualty incidents. Dr. Katzer is truly a force to be reckoned with when it comes to emergency medicine and national disaster response and is always ready to treat those in need.