On February 10, 2015 physician leaders of major medical organizations along with key federal personnel and National Security Council (NSC) staff participated in a Physicians Roundtable on a national initiative, Bystanders: Our Nation’s Immediate Responders. This medical preparedness initiative is a direct response to Presidential Policy Directive 8 (National Preparedness). The meeting was held at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House.
The goal of the initiative is to build national resilience by better preparing the general public to save lives by raising public awareness of techniques that can save lives by taking such basic actions as stopping life threatening bleeding. Our national preparedness is the shared responsibility of all levels of government, the private and nonprofit sectors, and individual citizens. As we have seen in such recent tragic incidents as the Boston Marathon bombings, anyone can contribute to safeguarding the Nation from harm. At the meeting, convened by NSC staff, participants in the federal interagency Bystander Workgroup reviewed progress on the initiative and received valuable input from physician leaders. There was unanimous broad support for the Bystander initiative from heads of major national physicians’ organizations [including the NFLPS].
