Disaster e-health framework for community resilience

Abstract

Disaster management and the health sector ought to be natural allies, but there are few examples of the collaborative planning and application of disaster healthcare involving emergency managers and care practitioners. The different origins, culture, and priorities of the various agencies tasked with disaster healthcare mean that communication and coordination between them is often lacking, leading to delayed, sub-standard, or inappropriate care for disaster victims. The potential of the new e-health technologies, such as the electronic health record, telehealth and mobile health, that are revolutionizing non-disaster healthcare, is also not being realised. These circumstances have led to an international project to develop a disaster e-health framework that can inform national disaster and health strategies. This paper describes this project and its extension to embrace community resilience that strengthens preparedness, safeguards life during the disaster phase, and assists long-term recovery to preserve the health and basic values of citizens.