Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T17:08:08.539Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Disaster Mobile Health Technology: Lessons from Haiti

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2012

David W. Callaway ,
Christopher R. Peabody ,
Ari Hoffman ,
Elizabeth Cote ,
Seth Moulton ,
Amado Alejandro Baez  and
Larry Nathanson
David W. Callaway*
Affiliation:
The Operational Medicine Institute, Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts USA Department of Emergency Medicine, Carolinas Medical Center, Charlotte, North Carolina USA
Christopher R. Peabody
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, LAC+USC Medical Center, Los Angeles, California USA
Ari Hoffman
Affiliation:
Department of Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California USA
Elizabeth Cote
Affiliation:
Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis St, Boston, MassachusettsUSA
Seth Moulton
Affiliation:
Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts USA
Amado Alejandro Baez
Affiliation:
Centros de Diagnostico, Medicina Avanzada y Telemedicina (CEDIMAT), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Larry Nathanson
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts USA
*
Correspondence: David W. Callaway, MD, MPA The Operational Medicine Institute Department of Emergency Medicine Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Boston, MA 02215 USA E-mail dcallawa@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Introduction

Mobile health (mHealth) technology can play a critical role in improving disaster victim tracking, triage, patient care, facility management, and theater-wide decision-making.

Problem

To date, no disaster mHealth application provides responders with adequate capabilities to function in an austere environment.

Methods

The Operational Medicine Institute (OMI) conducted a qualitative trial of a modified version of the off-the-shelf application iChart at the Fond Parisien Disaster Rescue Camp during the large-scale response to the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Results

The iChart mHealth system created a patient log of 617 unique entries used by on-the-ground medical providers and field hospital administrators to facilitate provider triage, improve provider handoffs, and track vulnerable populations such as unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, traumatic orthopedic injuries and specified infectious diseases.

Conclusion

The trial demonstrated that even a non-disaster specific application with significant programmatic limitations was an improvement over existing patient tracking and facility management systems. A unified electronic medical record and patient tracking system would add significant value to first responder capabilities in the disaster response setting.

Callaway DW, Peabody CR, Hoffman A, Cote E, Moulton S, Baez AA, Nathanson L. Disaster mobile health technology: lessons from Haiti. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2012;27(2):1-5.

Keywords

disasterearthquakeelectronic medical recordEMRHaitihealth information technologyHealth IT
Type
Original Research
Information
Prehospital and Disaster Medicine , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 148 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Chan, YF, Alagappan, K, Gandhi, A, et al. Disaster management following the Chi-Chi Earthquake in Taiwan. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2006;21(3):196-202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2. World Health Organization, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. http://ochaonline.un.org/. Accessed December 13, 2010.Google Scholar
3. Government of Haiti. Earthquake Destruction C Bilan des Dégats 15. http://ochaonline.un.org/humanitarianappeal/webpage.asp?Page=1921#_ftn1. Published on Haiti OneResponse on May 31, 2010. Accessed December 30, 2010.Google Scholar
4. Nudell, NG. The concept of scalable, interoperable IT system. http://www.scribd.com/doc/14813178/The-Concept-of-Fully-Integrated-Information. Accessed November 10, 2010.Google Scholar
5. Killeen, JP, Chan, TC, Buono, C, et al. A wireless first responder handheld device for rapid triage, patient assessment and documentation during mass casualty incidents. AMIA 2006 Symposium Proceedings: 429-433.Google Scholar
6. Crawford, D, Gao, T, White, D. Information collection and dissemination: toward a portable, real-time information sharing platform for emergency response. AMIA 2006 Symposium Proceedings: 898.Google Scholar
7. Blake, N, Stevenson, K. Reunification: keeping families together in crisis. J Trauma. 2009;67:S147-S151.Google ScholarPubMed
8. Maltz, JS, Ng, TSC, Li, DJ et al. The trauma patient tracking system: implementing a wireless monitoring infrastructure for emergency response. Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE, Engineering in Medicine and Biology 27th Annual Conference: 2441-2446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9. PDSA Cycles. Institute for Healthcare Improvement. http://www.ihi.org/IHI/Topics/Improvement/ImprovementMethods/HowToImprove/. Accessed December 10, 2010.Google Scholar
10. Ginzburg, E, O'Neill, WW, Goldschmidt-Clermont, PJ, et al. Rapid medical relief—Project Medishare and the Haitian Earthquake. N Engl J Med. 2010;362(10):e3 DOI:10.1056/NEJMp1002026.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed