Gregory Ciottone

Gregory Ciottone
Speaking at the 2010 NCEMA conference in Abu Dhabi
Born	Washington, DC
Nationality	USA
Education	University of Massachusetts Medical School Colby College
Medical career
Profession	Disaster Medicine
Institutions	Harvard Medical School

Dr Gregory Ciottone (born 1965) is an American physician and an internationally-recognized expert in Disaster Medicine and Emergency Management. Through his field work and scholarly activities he is considered a pioneer in the evolving field of Disaster Medicine, particularly in the area of mitigation against and preparedness for terrorist attacks. Ciottone has written numerous journal articles, book chapters, and educational materials, and is Editor-in-Chief of the textbook Disaster Medicine by Elsevier, regarded by many as the standard textbook in the field.^[1] The second edition of the book, now in press, is entitled "Ciottone's Disaster Medicine".

Dr. Ciottone is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Emergency Medicine) at Harvard Medical School, and is currently Director of the Disaster Medicine Division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he is the Founder and Director of the Disaster Medicine/Emergency Management Fellowship, the first of its kind in a Harvard teaching hospital.^[2] In addition to these appointments, Ciottone is a Visiting Professor in Disaster Medicine at three universities around the world, including Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and Universita del Piemonte Orientale in Italy

Early Life and Education

Gregory Ciottone was born in Washington DC and grew up outside Boston. He attended secondary school at St. Mark's School, and went on to earn his Bachelor's Degree at Colby College where he double-majored in Biology and Chemistry and was elected Phi Beta Kappa. In 1991 he received his MD from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, receiving the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine “Excellence in Emergency Medicine” award. He then completed his Emergency Medicine Residency at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and was selected by the faculty and his peers as Chief Resident. He currently resides in Westminster, Massachusetts with his wife Amalia and their children.

Experience and Vision

During his career, Ciottone has built experience that includes serving as a Flight Surgeon for a rescue helicopter system, an Emergency Physician in level-1 Trauma Centers, as well as performing disaster field work in more than 30 countries around the world . He has also served as Commander of one of the first federal Disaster Medical Assistance Teams into Ground Zero during the World Trade Center disaster on 9/11/2001.^[3][4] More recently, he led a team into Haiti following the 2010 earthquake and continues to work in that impoverished country providing humanitarian relief.^[5] He assimilated that experience to develop the groundwork for a new specialty, Disaster Medicine, designed to define the parameters by which disasters are prepared for, and victims of disaster are treated. Dr. Ciottone's approach to Disaster Medicine has always been from a global perspective, actively participating in the development of preparedness and response systems for domestic and international terrorism, as well as working to create enforceable standards of care for international disaster response, particularly in the developing world. His work and teachings have been geared towards finding evidence-based solutions to address these issues.

In 2009, while working in conjunction with Mikhail Gorbachev and the Gorbachev Foundation towards improved Disaster Preparedness and healthcare infrastructure in Russia, Ciottone served as a personal envoy from President Gorbachev to the U.S. Governmental Agency the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).^[6] As an acknowledgement of his expertise, Ciottone was named an Implementing Partner of the United Nations Development Program. This prestigious title is given to select international experts, allowing them to work as consultants to the family of United Nations organizations. Through this role Dr. Ciottone became Editor for the UN training module “Disaster Management for Terrorist Events.” In 2011, Ciottone was appointed to the European Master in Disaster Medicine Academy in Geneva Switzerland, an international disaster prevention and response policy institute operated through the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève. Later, he was named by the Russian Federation Ministries of Education and Science as an approved Evaluation Expert for the New Eurasia Foundation in the field of Disaster Medicine, as defined within the framework of Resolution No. 220 of the Russian Federation Government. He also worked with the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission through the Emergency Situations group. Dr. Ciottone's work has led to advances in the integration of disaster response systems on a global level.^[7][8]

Government Work

Throughout his career Ciottone has been known to work for various United States government entities. He began working under the Department of Health and Human Services in the early 1990’s through his work with the National Disaster Medical System. From there he held other positions in the government, including post-9/11 in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where he served as the Medical Director of the Office of Security and Investigations, and worked in Quantico with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Furthering his involvement in the preparation for WMD events, in 1997-8 Ciottone worked on a joint REAC/TS/IAEA nuclear disaster educational initiative in Eastern Europe. Also beginning in the early 1990’s under USAID, Ciottone worked extensively in the former Soviet Union, which is where he met his wife. Through that post he worked in most of the former Soviet Republics promoting healthcare initiatives. By early 2000 he was appointed the Director of a medical training center in Minsk Belarus until it was later dismantled, reportedly due to the US unwillingness to aid the Lukashenko regime. Later, he served as a personal envoy for Mikhail Gorbachev fostering Russian Healthcare Infrastructure improvement. More recently he worked with the Obama-Medvedev bilateral Presidential Commission in the Emergency Situations group.

Select Awards and Honors

In 1995 Dr. Ciottone was selected to lead the Washington DC based American International Health Alliance (AIHA) Emergency Medicine Task Force for the former Soviet Union. In 1997, he was selected as Commander of the federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) Massachusetts-2, a Level-1 response team of the National Disaster Medical System, and was later appointed Disaster Medicine Fellowship Director for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Geneva Switzerland. In 1998, Dr. Ciottone was appointed Director of the AIHA EMS and Disaster partnership program in Minsk, Belarus.

After the 9/11 attacks, Ciottone won an Official Citation from the Massachusetts Senate for his work at Ground Zero during the federal response, and was personally thanked by Tommy Thompson, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services at that time. In 2002, Dr. Ciottone was selected as Medical Director for the Tactical EMS training program at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Academy in Quantico, VA, and in 2003, he was appointed Certification Director for the Tuscan Emergency Medicine Initiative in Florence, Italy. Dr. Ciottone was then appointed Editor-in-Chief of the 1st edition textbook Disaster Medicine, published by Elsevier/Mosby in 2006, which became the best-selling textbook in the field, both domestically and internationally.

In 2007, Ciottone was named “EMS Physician of the Year” by Central Massachusetts Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and in 2008 he was the “Spotlight” for the Phi Beta Kappa national publication Keynote Reporter.^[9] Also in 2008, the World Champion Boston Red Sox honored Dr. Ciottone by having him throw out the Ceremonial First Pitch as part of the 9/11 remembrance ceremonies at Fenway Park.

Moral Compass

Greg Ciottone has long been regarded as having an unwavering moral compass, with many instances where he has strived to do what is right in the face of overwhelming resistance. This has been proven-out in his work in Haiti, through his teaching and mentoring, and through his public actions. One of the more illustrative examples of his character was demonstrated by steps he took in 2007 when it was brought to his attention that in the prior year a man had travelled 72 times on various airline flights around the United States with active multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis before he was stopped, and because of a poorly-researched study from decades before, the official U.S. governmental policy was those who flew less than 8 hours with him (every flight was under 8 hours) did not need to be contacted nor tested for TB. Ciottone, understanding the implications of such a flawed policy on this country's ability to combat bioterrorism, was quoted on three separate occasions on the front page of the Washington Times describing how ludicrous and dangerous this policy was.^{[10] [11] [12]} He maintained his position despite a barrage of attacks and persevered, resulting in the re-writing of the policy.

Select Publications

Ciottone has published numerous articles and educational materials on Disaster Medicine, including the article in EMedicine on Chemical, Biological, and Radiation/Nuclear Events.,^[13] the first ever Hazard Vulnerability Analysis done on the SEHA system of hospitals in Abu Dhabi,^[14] and an analysis of the preparedness and response to Disaster as a form of diplomacy between nations.^[15] In 2006 he published his seminal work, the textbook Disaster Medicine, published by Elsevier-Mosby, of which he is Editor-in-Chief.^[16] He continues his research today seeking to remedy the lack of enforceable standard of care in international disaster response.

References