Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical services, has unfortunately accumulated plenty of experience in dealing with mass-casualty events. But it is using its knowledge to do good, and recently launched its “First 7 Minutes” project in the United States.

The project aims to impart the knowledge and experience of Magen David Adom in communities around the world and provide their members with tools for dealing with emergencies. As part of the project, MDA paramedics conduct a four-hour seminar and a mass-casualty incident simulation.

MDA teams have been conducting such seminars for the past 18 months and have so far trained more than 3,000 people in 15 countries including Canada, Australia, Greece and Switzerland.

The project recently made its debut stateside appearance, when 150 Americans from Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities participated in a Milwaukee seminar and learned how to use seven principles to save lives in mass-casualty scenarios such as terror attacks.

“The goal of the project is to train members of the communities to know how to deal with a multi-casualty event in the first few critical moments. We are teaching the public what to do until emergency teams arrive, and how to help emergency teams upon their arrival,” explains MDA Deputy Director General-Community Dr. Eli Jaffe, who initiated the project.

“At Magen David Adom we are saving lives every day throughout the country, and the satisfaction is tremendous every time,” says MDA Director General Eli Bin. “It is exciting to see how, thanks to the unique experience accumulated by medics and paramedics of Magen David Adom, we are able to influence and contribute to saving lives in many countries and continents around the world, and now also in the United States.”