Disaster response Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Emergency response systems=== [[Smart Emergency Response System]] (SERS)<ref>Smart Emergency Response System, team website.</ref> prototype was built in the SmartAmerica Challenge 2013β2014,<ref>SmartAmerica Challenge, website.</ref> a United States government initiative. SERS has been created by a team of nine organizations led by MathWorks. The project was featured at the White House in June 2014 and described by Todd Park (U.S. Chief Technology Officer) as an exemplary achievement. The SmartAmerica initiative challenges the participants to build cyber-physical systems as a glimpse of the future to save lives, create jobs, foster businesses, and improve the economy. SERS primarily saves lives. The system provides the survivors and the emergency personnel with information to locate and assist each other during a disaster. SERS allows to submit help requests to a MATLAB-based mission center connecting first responders, apps, search-and-rescue dogs, a 6-feet-tall humanoid, robots, drones, and autonomous aircraft and ground vehicles. The command and control center optimizes the available resources to serve every incoming requests and generates an action plan for the mission. The Wi-Fi network is created on the fly by the drones equipped with antennas. In addition, the autonomous rotorcrafts, planes, and ground vehicles are simulated with Simulink and visualized in a 3D environment (Google Earth) to unlock the ability to observe the operations on a mass scale.<ref>Video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oofHMaEWwP8] Smart Emergency Response System</ref> The [[International Charter Space and Major Disasters]] provides for the charitable retasking of satellite assets, providing coverage from 15 [[space agency|space agencies]], etc. which is wide albeit contingent. It focuses on the beginning of the disaster cycle, when timely data is of the essence. Digital technologies are increasingly being used in humanitarian action, they have shown to improve the health and recovery of populations affected by both natural and man-made disasters. They are used in humanitarian response to facilitate and coordinate aid in various stages including preparedness, response, and recovery from emergencies. More specifically, mobile health ([[mHealth]]), which is defined as the use of communication devices such as mobile phones for the purpose of health services information. Nowadays, millions of people use mobile phones as a means of daily communication and data transference, out of which 64% live in developing countries.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Alonso|first1=Wladimir J|last2=Schuck-Paim|first2=Cynthia|last3=Asrar|first3=Ghassem R|date=2014|title=Global health and natural disaster alerts: preparing mobile phones to endure the unthinkable|journal=Earth Perspectives|volume=1|issue=1|pages=24|doi=10.1186/2194-6434-1-24|issn=2194-6434|url=http://www.earth-perspectives.com/content/1/1/24|doi-access=free}}</ref> One of the most important characteristics of disasters are the harms caused to infrastructures, accessibility issues, and an exponential need of medical and emergency services. In such situations, the use of mobile phones for mHealth can be vital, especially when other communication infrastructures are hindered. In such conditions, the abundance of mobile technology in developing countries provide the opportunity to be harnessed for helping victims and vulnerable people.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Tavakoli|first1=Nahid|last2=Yarmohammadian|first2=MohammadH|last3=Safdari|first3=Reza|date=2015|title=Role of mhealth in effective response to disaster|journal=International Journal of Health System and Disaster Management|volume=3|issue=3|pages=129|doi=10.4103/2347-9019.157363|issn=2347-9019 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Mobile health information technology platforms, in the acute phase of disaster response, create a common operational framework that improves disaster response by standardizing data acquisition, organizing information storage, and facilitating communication among medical staff. One of the challenges in disaster response is the need of pertinent, effective and continuous analysis of the situation and information in order to evaluate needs and resources.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Chan|first1=Theodore C.|last2=Griswold|first2=William G.|last3=Buono|first3=Colleen|last4=Kirsh|first4=David|last5=Lyon|first5=Joachim|last6=Killeen|first6=James P.|last7=Castillo|first7=Edward M.|last8=Lenert|first8=Leslie|date=August 2011|title=Impact of Wireless Electronic Medical Record System on the Quality of Patient Documentation by Emergency Field Responders during a Disaster Mass-Casualty Exercise|journal=Prehospital and Disaster Medicine|volume=26|issue=4|pages=268β275|doi=10.1017/s1049023x11006480|pmid=21993045|s2cid=7675898|issn=1049-023X}}</ref> mHealth has been shown to provide effective disaster preparedness with real time collection of medical data as well as helping identify and create needs assessments during disasters.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Tavakoli|first1=Nahid|last2=Fooladvand|first2=Maryam|last3=Jahanbakhsh|first3=Maryam|date=2013|title=Developing health information documentation in disaster|journal=International Journal of Health System and Disaster Management|volume=1|issue=1|pages=11|doi=10.4103/2347-9019.122426|issn=2347-9019 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Using mobile technology in heath has set the stage for the dynamic organization of medical resources and promotion of patient care done through quick triage, patient tracking, and documentation storage and maintenance.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Ahmadizad|first1=Arman|last2=Varmaghani|first2=Maryam|date=2017-08-01|title=A Pattern for the Effective Factors influencing the Adoption and Implementation of the E-marketing in the Tourism industry|journal=Journal of Business Administration Researches|volume=9|issue=17|pages=197β224|doi=10.29252/bar.9.17.197|issn=2008-014X|doi-access=free}}</ref> Managing an effective and influential response requires cooperation, which is also facilitated through mHealth. A retrospective study demonstrated that applying mHealth can lead to up to 15% decrease of unnecessary hospital transfers during disasters.<ref name="Marres-et-al-2013">{{Cite journal|last1=Marres|first1=Geertruid M.H.|last2=Taal|first2=Luc|last3=Bemelman|first3=Michael|last4=Bouman|first4=Jos|last5=Leenen|first5=Luke P.H.|date=2013-05-13|title=Online Victim Tracking and Tracing System (ViTTS) for Major Incident Casualties|journal=Prehospital and Disaster Medicine|volume=28|issue=5|pages=445β453|doi=10.1017/s1049023x13003567|pmid=23663377|s2cid=3472581|issn=1049-023X}}</ref> In addition, they provide field hospital administrators with real-time census information essential for planning, resource allocation, inter-facility patient transfers, and inter-agency collaboration. mHealth technology systems can improve post-operative care and patient handoffs between volunteer providers.<ref name="Marres-et-al-2013" /> Data entry with mobile devices is now widely used to facilitate the registration of displaced individuals, to conduct surveys, identify those in need of assistance, and to capture data on issues such as food security, vaccination rates, and mortality. Above all, mHealth can harness the power of information to improve patient outcomes. Efforts led by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Operational Medicine Institute during the Haiti earthquake resulted in the creation of a web-based mHealth system that created a patient log of 617 unique entries used by on-the-ground medical providers and field hospital administrators.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Callaway|first1=David W.|last2=Peabody|first2=Christopher R.|last3=Hoffman|first3=Ari|last4=Cote|first4=Elizabeth|last5=Moulton|first5=Seth|last6=Baez|first6=Amado Alejandro|last7=Nathanson|first7=Larry|date=April 2012|title=Disaster Mobile Health Technology: Lessons from Haiti|journal=Prehospital and Disaster Medicine|volume=27|issue=2|pages=148β152|doi=10.1017/s1049023x12000441|pmid=22588429|s2cid=31328634|issn=1049-023X}}</ref> This helped facilitate provider triage, improve provider handoffs, and track vulnerable populations such as unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, traumatic orthopedic injuries and specified infectious diseases. Also, during the Haiti earthquake, the International Red Crescent sent more than 45 million SMSs to Viole mobile phone users. This resulted in 95% of the receiver reporting they had gained useful information, and out of these 90% reported the SMS helped in their preparedness.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.readkong.com/page/mobile-technology-2997912|title=Mobile technoloGY in emerGencies|website=www.readkong.com|language=en|access-date=2018-12-10}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page