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.
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.
In February 2003, prior to formation of the AADM and ABODM, the American Association of Physician Specialists (AAPS) commissioned an expert panel to undertake a scholarly review of the literature and survey the recognized experts in disaster management, emergency management, medical contingency planning, emergency medicine, public health, disaster behavioral health and military medicine to determine if such a unique body of knowledge and skills existed.