Background Frameworks for Disaster Health lack structure and require stronger evidence. Disaster Risk Reduction has become an international imperative, now guided by the 2015 Sendai Framework (UNISDR). Haddon’s Matrix has successfully defined injury prevention countermeasures in a range of community settings over the past 30 years. This paper outlines an evolving model to underpin our understanding of Disaster Health and explores both the current and potential use of Haddon’s Matrix in the setting of disaster risk reduction.

Methods A literature review was undertaken to enhance the outcomes of the WADEM Education Committee’s initial 2008 framework for International Standards and Guidelines for Disaster Health Education. A second literature review examined the use of Haddon’s Matrix in the disaster domain. The 2015 Sendai Framework was examined to identify elements potentially relating to Haddon’s Matrix.

Results Four domains within Disaster Health were identified:

1. Comprehensive approach: the natural history of a disaster structured on the 3 phases of pre-event, event, and post event;

2. All Agency, Shared Responsibility approach: stakeholders and conceptual elements in disaster risk reduction;

3. All Hazards approach: reflecting both the traditional scope of disasters, and the contemporary scope of emergencies’;

4. Generic Personal Attributes expected of the humanitarian professional.

Haddon’s Matrix is rarely linked to the disaster domain, although a small number of case studies have recently reported adapting this approach to the emergency management setting. Elements identified within the 2015 Sendai Framework provide an exciting opportunity to adapt Haddon’s Matrix in this setting.

Conclusion Haddon’s Matrix provides a framework for common communication and structuring the science and evidence-base of disaster risk reduction. It is adaptable to the contemporary concept of disaster resilience and to understanding disasters through the eyes of community safety.