Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams in Action The Role of DMORT in Natural Disasters Pandemics and Beyond

Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams (DMORTs) were created in 1992 to assist federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial entities with identifying and reuniting human remains with their loved ones after a mass casualty incident. ASPR TRACIE interviewed Dr. Patricia Kauffman who has been with DMORT since 2001 and currently serves as a team commander to understand how the role of DMORTs has changed over time. A sidebar on challenges associated with counting disaster-related deaths accompanies the article.