Joseph Waeckerle, MD, is one of the most influential physicians in the specialty of emergency medicine. Waeckerle was editor-in-chief of the medical journal Annals of Emergency Medicine and chairman of the Task Force on Domestic Preparedness Against Weapons of Mass Destruction, both funded by a grant from the Office of Emergency Preparedness from the Department of Health and Human Services. He has been an active participant with the Department of Justice in establishing the National Domestic Preparedness Office and serves on the state and local advisory group to this office.
Waeckerle was invited by the Department of Defense to participate in the Defense Science Board's Task Force on Defense Against Biological Weapons and by the Veterans Hospital Administration to serve on the Technical Advisory Committee on Domestic Preparedness. He is also the medical officer for the Kansas City division of the FBI and medical officer for the Kansas City Police Department.
He has written extensively in this area, including the definitive review of disaster planning and preparation in The New England Journal of Medicine and multiple publications in Annals of Emergency Medicine and The Journal of the American Medical Association.