the not-yet-distant memory of the 1917-1918 Influenza Pandemic. The term "disaster medicine" continued to appear sporadically in both the medical and popular press until the 1980s, when the first concerted efforts to organize a medical response corps for disasters grew into the National Disaster Medical System. Simultaneous with this was the formation of a disaster and emergency medicine discussion and study group under the American Medical Association (AMA) in the United States as well as groups in Great Britain, Israel and other countries. By the time Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992, the concept of disaster medicine was entrenched in public and governmental consciousness. Although training and fellowships in disaster medicine or related topics began graduating specialists in Europe and the United States as early as the 1980s, it was not until 2003 that the medical community embraced the need for the new specialty. Throughout this period, incomplete and faltering medical responses to disaster events made it increasingly apparent in the United States of America 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 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 in the United States of America 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. In 2008, the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) formed the Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC) in support of the NLM's history of supporting healthcare professionals and information workers in accessing health information. DIMRC provides a specialized database, Disaster Lit: Database for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, an open access resource of disaster medicine documents, including guidelines, research reports, conference proceedings, fact sheets, training, fact sheets, and similar materials. Ethics in Disaster Medicine The Disaster Medicine practitioner must be well-versed in the ethical dilemmas that commonly arise in disaster settings. One of the most common dilemmas occurs when the aggregate medical need exceeds the ability to provide a normal standard of