Introduction: Mass Gathering Medicine is a relatively new subspecialty. Focusing on improving the health impact and mitigating issues is a newly recognized skill. Given the heterogeneity of MGM, including sporting, festivals, and religious gatherings, standards can be challenging to institute. With vast types of MGM staffing, medical skills can vary. Current literature needs more research and guidance on training standards for event medical staff. This study highlights expert opinion on minimum standards for medical staff to improve public and participant safety. Methods: The study is a three-round Delphi based on the CREDES criteria. Experts were identified at the MGM conferences in Riyadh and NYC in 2023. The study was performed via STAT59. Emails were sent to the experts requesting participation. In round 1, experts generated opinions on medical staff training. The second and third rounds used a 7-point linear scale to rank each statement. The ranking consisted of “not at all important” to “extremely important”. Stat59 anonymized all statements and rankings. The statements were considered to have reached a consensus if the responses had a standard deviation (SD) of less than or equal to 1.0. Results: 137 open-ended statements were generated in round 1, and 73 appropriate statements proceeded to round 2. 28.7% of the statements (21/73) found consensus after round 2. In round 3, 39.6% of the remaining statements reached consensus (21/53). Forty-two statements from the initial 73 (57.5%) met consensus. Certain priority themes were noted. This included venue-specific information, good staff orientation to operations and capabilities, and community coordination. Mass-casualty preparation and triage were secondarily highlighted as a critical focus. Conclusion: MG events continue to increase in size and frequency. This expert consensus provides a framework for training. Further work is needed to specialize core competency expectations for specific events and venues.
Mathew et al. (Sun,) studied this question.