2013 NAME Annual Meeting

The 2013 Annual Meeting will be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Dr. Brian Peterson will be the 2013 Annual Meeting Scientific Program Chair.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) is a clearinghouse for missing persons and unidentified decedent records. NamUs is a free online system that can be searched by medical examiners, coroners, law enforcement officials and the general public to solve these cases.

The Unidentified Persons Database contains information entered by medical examiners and coroners. Unidentified persons are people who have died and whose bodies have not been identified. Anyone can search this database using characteristics such as sex, race, distinct body features and even dental information.

The Missing Persons Database contains information about missing persons that can be entered by anyone; before it appears as a case on NamUs, the information is verified. NamUs provides the ability to print missing persons posters and even map out possible travel routes in a search for a missing person. Other resources include links to state clearinghouses, medical examiner and coroner offices, law enforcement agencies, victim assistance groups and pertinent legislation.

When a new missing persons or unidentified decedent case is entered into NamUs, the system automatically performs cross-matching comparisons between the databases, searching for matches or similarities between cases.

NamUs also provides free DNA testing and other forensic services, such as anthropology and odontology assistance.

Click HERE to go to NamUs.  HERE are some of the success stories of NamUs.

MEDICAL EXAMINERS: Use the NamUs UP Worksheet to document all needed case information before entering a case in the NamUs UP.

BEST PRACTICES GUIDELINES

In investigating unidentified human remains cases, it is of utmost importance that all agencies follow Best Practices standards developed by working groups of experts in the field, to ensure that proper and necessary steps are taken to aid in identification.

The following guidelines are provided to assist medical examiners, coroners, and law enforcement in improving procedures for these cases.

The Medical Examiner/Coroner’s Guide For Contaminated Deceased Body Management

Prepared by Randy Hanzlick, MD, Kurt Nolte, MD, Joyce deJong, DO and the NAME Biological and Chemical Terrorism Committee and Bioterrorism and Infectious Disease Committee, August 2006. Approved for posting on the NAME web site by the NAME Board of Directors at its annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, October 13, 2006.

The Medical Examiner and Coroner’s Guide for Contaminated Deceased Body Management is written specifically for the medical examiner or coroner who will be in charge of investigations of fatalities that result from terrorism or other events that result in contaminated remains. In some such cases, agents may be used that will require mitigation of environmental hazards and decontamination of human bodies. To that end, this Guide provides information and suggestions that may be useful in understanding the principles involved in decontamination procedures, recognizing that it may not be the medical examiner or coroner staff who actually conducts decontamination procedures.

Posted on this web site on 11/8/06. Download here.

So You Want To Be A Medical Detective

A medical detective can be considered a “death investigator”. There are a variety of professionals beside the police who may be involved in death investigation, including coroners, medical examiners, pathologists and forensic pathologists. This brief publication describes the different professionals involved in death investigation.

Posted on the web site on 11/9/06. Download here.

NAME Standard of Procedures for Mass Fatality Management

Traditionally, a mass fatality has been defined as any incident resulting in more decedents to be recovered and examined than can be managed in the local Medical Examiner/Coroner (ME/C) jurisdiction. The number of fatalities that a jurisdiction can handle should be determined before a disaster occurs.

More recently, the definition has been shifting to include any incident that results in or has the potential to result in the death of a certain number of individuals. For example, an explosion at a factory, if the potential for multiple deaths is present, should result in notification of the ME/C. The extent of implementation of the mass fatality response
plan will be determined after an assessment of the number of fatalities and/or potential fatalities.

The ME/C is responsible for the medicolegal investigation of the incident, including human factor considerations (e.g., toxicology). A mass fatality incident does not diminish this responsibility. The ME/C is in charge of the documentation, examination, identification, recovery, disposition, and certification of all remains as well as morgue
operations. Additional assistance from other organizations and agencies is subject to the discretion and approval of the ME/C.

Updated on Feb 2011. Download here .

The National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) is the national professional organization of physician medical examiners, medical death investigators and death investigation system administrators who perform the official duties of the medicolegal investigation of deaths of public interest in the United States. NAME was founded in 1966 with the dual purposes of fostering the professional growth of physician death investigators and disseminating the professional and technical information vital to the continuing improvement of the medical investigation of violent, suspicious and unusual deaths. Growing from a small nucleus of concerned physicians, NAME has expanded its scope to include physician medical examiners and coroners, medical death investigators and medicolegal system administrators from throughout the United States and other countries.

NAME members provide the expertise to medicolegal death investigation that is essential to the effective functioning of the civil and criminal justice systems. NAME is now the national forum for the interchange of professional and technical information in this important segment of public administration. NAME seeks to promote excellence in the day to day investigation of individual cases as well as to improve the interaction of death investigation systems with other agencies and political entities that interface with death investigation in each jurisdiction in this country.

The evolution of excellence in the medicolegal investigation of death in the United States has been slow and arduous. In many jurisdictions the medical aspects of death investigation remain relegated to personnel without medical training, or are performed by persons with little or no education in death investigation. NAME serves as a resource to individuals and jurisdictions seeking to improve medicolegal death investigation by continually working to develop and upgrade national standards for death investigation. The published NAME Standards for a Modern Medicolegal Investigative System provide a model for jurisdictions seeking to improve death investigation. NAME aims to involve competent professional medicolegal death investigators in every jurisdiction in the United States.

NAME, as an association and through its members, maintains active cooperative relationships with the College of American Pathologists, American Society of Clinical Pathologists, and other professional organizations. NAME representatives participate and serve in an advisory capacity to federal, public and private organizations on projects of mutual interest. As the official specialty association of physician medical examiners, the NAME promotes its vision of competent national death investigation from a seat in the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association.

Equally important as standards for performance and the technical scientific knowledge which NAME imparts, is a concept for the administrative and operational aspects of death investigation systems. The educational functions of NAME are simultaneously directed towards the development and improvement of administratively efficient, cost effective death investigation systems. The Association serves as the national forum for medical death investigators and system administrators for the discussion and dissemination of such information. NAME further encourages members to participate in the training of law enforcement officers, allied health professionals, paramedical personnel and others who interface with death cases.

The educational activities of NAME are carried out at the week long annual meeting each Fall. The meeting's didactic sessions provide instruction on subjects of medicolegal interest while the scientific sessions provide a platform for individual presentation of scientific studies and research in a peer review setting. Concurrent sessions are scheduled for medical investigators and administrators to discuss issues of mutual interest, share information and procedures, and present papers relating to the administrative and investigative functions of death investigation systems. The Association meets for an interim half day meeting each February in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

The work of the Association is carried out under the direction of its Officers and a Board of Directors elected by the membership. An executive committee is responsible for the fiscal affairs and management of the Association. Standing committees deal with issues of membership and credentials, education, program and publications, ethics, standards, inspection, and accreditation, and finance amongst others. All members are encouraged to participate in committee activities. A permanent Executive Director and part time Executive Vice-President, headquartered in Atlanta, provide year long administrative support.

As part of its mission to improve the quality of death investigation nationally and to recognize excellence in death investigation systems, the NAME offers a voluntary inspection and accreditation program for medicolegal death investigative offices. This program is designed to offer expert evaluation and offer recommendations for improvement of functioning offices. Accreditation by NAME is an honor and significant achievement for an office. It signifies to the public that the office is performing at a high level of competence and public service. NAME also offers consultative services for jurisdictions seeking to establish medicolegal death investigation systems and for political entities wishing to evaluate death investigation systems under their administrative purview.

Membership in the National Association of Medical examiners is open to all physicians, investigators, and administrators who are active in medicolegal death investigation. The annual dues include a subscription to the Association's official publication, Academic Forensic Pathology, and access to NAME-L, an Internet Listserv.

Information about membership and the procedure for scheduling an inspection may be obtained from the NAME Executive Director NAME Executive Director.

Further information about the history of the National Association of Medical Examiners and its first 25 years of meetings may be found in the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Volume 16, Number 4, pages 278-313, December 1995.

For further information, contact:

Denise McNally, Executive Director

31479 Arrow Lane

Marceline, MO  64658

660-734-1891

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