Applications of Telemedicine and Telecommunications to Disaster Medicine: Historical and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Disaster management utilizes diverse technologies to accomplish a complex set of tasks. Despite a decade of experience, few published reports have reviewed application of telemedicine (clinical care at a distance enabled by telecommunication) in disaster situations. Appropriate new telemedicine applications can improve future disaster medicine outcomes, based on lessons learned from a decade of civilian and military disaster (wide-area) telemedicine deployments. This manuscript reviews the history of telemedicine activities in actual disasters and similar scenarios as well as ongoing telemedicine innovations that may be applicable to disaster situations. Emergency care providers must begin to plan effectively to utilize disaster-specific telemedicine applications to improve future outcomes.

Disaster management and mitigation: the telecommunications infrastructure

“…The issue is just as urgent there as it is in disaster management, particularly as the two fields often merge (see, for example, BMJ Editorial, 1994;Garshnek and Burkle, 1998;Garshnek and Burkle, 1999;von Lubitz et al, 2002). The novelty of ideas presented in the paper centres on the integration of a wide range of equipment and systems-which, in their currently used form, are cumbersome and not easily managed by non-expert people-into a single, flexible unifying platform endowed with physical mobility and ease of operations.…”

A Model of a Mass Medical Service System for Emergency Recovery Based on Mobile Telemedical Complexes

“…The table of distribution of victims over damage severity (form 0400) was used to estimate mean fraction, δ, of victims with severe or moderate injuries per the same time interval. Mean fraction, ε, of victims requiring telemedical consultation was estimated from analysis of data obtained after mass scale ES in Armenia (earth quake, 1988) and Ufa (gas pipe line explosion, 1989) [11,12]. According to these data and expert estimates of physicians from Nizhny Novgorod Disaster Center, this fraction was 50, 25, and ~15% for mean number of vic tims 50, 50 500, and more than 500, respectively.…”

Princípios de medicina de catástrofe em revisão a partir de Fukushima

“…A telemedicina foi aplicada pela primeira vez em catástrofes em meados A telemedicina engloba diagnóstico, tratamento, monitorização e educação de pacientes e providencia conveniente acesso local-independente, conselhos de especialistas e informações do paciente (V. Garshnnek e F.M. Burkle, 1999). A disponibilidade imediata da informação imagiológica aos médicos leva a uma intervenção mais precoce, melhoria do tratamento do paciente e poupança de custos (K. M. Zundel, 1996).…”