ABDM meaning in Medical ?

Disaster medicine as a specialty and mindset was not only a reaction from September 11, 2001, but to the numerous subsequent events that seemed to all too quickly follow: random anthrax attacks, the SARS outbreak, the New York City blackout in the summer of 2003, the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake of 2005, tumultuous hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005 (including Hurricane Katrina) and, of course, terrorist attacks throughout the world — all against a backdrop of conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The medical establishment in North America and the United Kingdom began forming study and discussion groups in disaster medicine. In some cases, the medical schools were on the front lines of this movement. Meanwhile, courses and fellowships in disaster medicine related fields at universities in London, Paris, Brussels, Bordeaux and the United States have been in existence since the early 1980s.

Throughout this period, incomplete and faltering medical responses to disaster events made it increasingly apparent that federal, state and local emergency management organizations were in need of a mechanism to identify qualified physicians in the face of a global upturn in the rate of natural and man-made disasters. Many physicians who volunteer at disasters have a bare minimum of knowledge in disaster medicine and often pose a hazard to themselves and the response effort because they have little or no field response training. It was against this backdrop that the American Academy of Disaster Medicine (AADM) and the American Board of Disaster Medicine (ABODM) were formed for the purpose of scholarly exchange and education in Disaster Medicine as well as the development of an examination demonstrating excellence towards Board Certification in this new specialty.