COVID-19 the showdown for mass casualty preparedness and management: The Cassandra Syndrome
Publicated to:World Journal Of Emergency Surgery. 15 (1): - 2020-04-09 15(1), DOI: 10.1186/s13017-020-00304-5
Authors: Coccolini F; Sartelli M; Kluger Y; Pikoulis E; Karamagioli E; Moore EE; Biffl WL; Peitzman A; Hecker A; Chirica M; Damaskos D; Ordonez C; Vega F; Fraga GP; Chiarugi M; Di Saverio S; Kirkpatrick AW; Abu-Zidan F; Mefire AC; Leppaniemi A; Khokha V; Sakakushev B; Catena R; Coimbra R; Ansaloni L; Corbella D; Catena F
Affiliations
Abstract
Since December 2019, the world is potentially facing one of the most difficult infectious situations of the last decades. COVID-19 epidemic warrants consideration as a mass casualty incident (MCI) of the highest nature. An optimal MCI/disaster management should consider all four phases of the so-called disaster cycle: mitigation, planning, response, and recovery. COVID-19 outbreak has demonstrated the worldwide unpreparedness to face a global MCI. This present paper thus represents a call for action to solicitate governments and the Global Community to actively start effective plans to promote and improve MCI management preparedness in general, and with an obvious current focus on COVID-19.
Keywords
Quality index
Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel
The work has been published in the journal World Journal Of Emergency Surgery due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2020, it was in position 2/32, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Emergency Medicine. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.
From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations from Scopus Elsevier, it yields a value for the Field-Weighted Citation Impact from the Scopus agency: 6.2, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)
This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:
- Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 19.66 (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)
Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-11, the following number of citations:
- Scopus: 62
- OpenCitations: 58
Impact and social visibility
Leadership analysis of institutional authors
This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Brazil; Bulgaria; Byelorussia; Cameroon; Canada; Colombia; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Israel; Italy; Mexico; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom; United States of America.