Fukuoka University Pharmacy Students Participate in Fukuoka Prefecture's Comprehensive Disaster Drill

On May 24 (Sunday), Fukuoka Prefecture hosted a comprehensive disaster drill, in which three students from the Department of Pharmacy and the Laboratory of Health Risk Management Pharmacy at Fukuoka University participated. The drill simulated a magnitude 7 earthquake originating from the Kego Fault Zone at the Fukuoka Prefectural Office, providing practical training aligned with real-world disaster response scenarios.

The students took on the role of staff members at the healthcare coordination headquarters established within the prefectural office. They collaborated with two disaster pharmaceutical coordinators dispatched by the Fukuoka Pharmacists Association. Their responsibilities included assessing the damage status of insured pharmacies and pharmaceutical distributors in affected areas, organizing and analyzing collected information, and creating activity logs. These tasks mirrored actual duties required during disasters, offering the students valuable hands-on experience to enhance their on-site response capabilities.

Mizuki Nakamura, a fourth-year pharmacy student who participated in the drill, said: "The disaster chronology recording app (D-CSS) developed in our laboratory was utilized during the drill, enabling efficient information sharing with stakeholders in remote locations. Working in a high-pressure environment simulating a real disaster allowed us to gain numerous practical insights that cannot be obtained through classroom learning alone."

※D-CSS (Disaster-Chronology Sharing System) is an information-sharing tool designed for disasters, aiming to share updated information, organize data chronologically, and report to higher-level command centers.

Recording disaster conditions with photos and sharing via the app - Information logging using D-CSS