About AK-1

Alaska-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team (AK-1 DMAT) is a Federally sponsored, local, volunteer-based response team to disasters. This Alaskan team is made up of volunteer doctors, nurses, physician assistants (PA), paramedics, EMT's, and non-medical support personnel.

Team members have been deployed to the 9-11 Ground Zero Recovery Efforts in New York City,  The Kosovo Refugee Process, and  Hurricane Katrina. We have also provided support during non-disaster situations including, the Anchorage 2000 Millennium celebrations, the Nike Games, Special Olympics World Winter Games and the 2006 winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

AK-1 was first organized in 1997. On April 30, 2000 Alaska-1 DMAT became a Level 1 team. AK-1 is one of only two teams in the system that maintain cold weather response capabilities. When deployed, this team will bring health professionals and support staff to assist in devastated areas. The team was assigned Level 1 status from the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) office of Emergency Preparedness (NDMS). With the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and the reorganization of the NDMS under the Federal Emergency Management Agency, AK-1 has been assigned a Level 3 status.  On January 1st 2007 The NDMS was reassigned to back to the Public Health Service and we are currently undoing a transition process.

NDMS was established to provide medical assistance to Americans in the event of a natural or man made disaster and give stateside support for injured men and women of the U.S. Military. The United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Defense, FEMA and the U.S. Veterans Administration have been given the responsibility to establish and grow the NDMS.

There are over 70 Level 1, 2, 3 DMAT, and specialty teams in the system. NDMS is comprised of Disaster Medical Teams, Disaster Mortuary Teams (DMORT), Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams (DVAT), National Medical Response Teams (NMRT) and several specialty teams.

When activated, DMAT's are deployed to assist local emergency responders in providing medical care. Once on site, teams are equipped to be self-reliant for 72 hours and insure the safety and health of all team members while providing clinical care as needed. Treatment areas, power generation, radio communications, and personnel shelters can be established and maintained for up to two-weeks.  Recent changes to the system now allow for the deployment of  smaller 5 person "strike" teams that can be rapidly activated and deployed to areas of need.
 

The Alaska 1 DMAT web site is a work in progress.  In order to provide a rapid release of the website there is still editing to be done.  Please  be patient corrections and updates are being made regularly.

Please provide any input, suggestions', corrections or other information concerning the web site to feedback@ak1dmat.com     Thanks.