Article Out Loud – Elevating Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Exercises with Realistic Patient Simulation

Kathryn Romanchuk, MScPH, MScPHDS, BSN-RN, is the emergency management fellow at the Department of Emergency Management and Enterprise Resilience, NYU Langone Health, New York. Her work extends from enterprise plan development and special event engagement to exercise development and disability-focused healthcare emergency management research. Kathryn has a background in emergency and trauma nursing and was nominated for a Daisy Award for her excellent patient care. She received dual master’s degrees during the COVID-19 pandemic from McGill University and l’Université de Bordeaux. Prior to working in healthcare emergency management, she completed a post-graduate education program at Harvard Medical School and obtained three Cancer Research Training awards with the National Cancer Institute.

Ben Kobliner, MPA, is an emergency management specialist at the Department of Emergency Management and Enterprise Resilience, NYU Langone Health, where he works with clinical and operational teams to build emergency resilience through full-scale exercises and real-world incident management. His work focuses on improving hospital readiness for large-scale emergencies, including mass casualty incidents, disease outbreaks, and critical infrastructure disruptions. Previously, Ben heldroles at the United States Naval War College, the Providence Emergency Management Agency, and several fire and rescue agencies in New York and Rhode Island. Ben holds a master of public affairs from Brown University and is pursuing a master of business administration from the NYU Stern School of Business.