A call for standardized training.

This special issue of Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness is being published as a result of the tragic events that occurred on the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) campus in April 2007. Such events vividly underscore the need for specialized training to ensure the most appropriate and effective response on the part of the medical and public health community. The National Disaster Life Support Foundation (NDLSF; a 501(c)3 nonprofit foundation) was established for the primary purpose of developing and disseminating disaster medicine educational courses. In partnership with the American Medical Association the NDLSF has developed a “family” of courses to address the need for standardized disaster medicine education. The unknown aspects of any disaster scene require that standardized training be approached from an all-hazards standpoint. These are the underlying attributes of the NDLSF family of courses.