Relief Teams Research Articles

Disaster Plans: Resident Involvement and Well-Being During Hurricane Harvey.

Disaster Plans: Resident Involvement and Well-Being During Hurricane Harvey.

Consideration of Medical and Public Health Coordination - Experience from the 2016 Kumamoto, Japan Earthquake.

The aim of this study was to identify disaster medical operation improvements from the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake (Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan) and to extract further lessons learned to prepare for future expected major earthquakes. The records of communications logs, chronological transitions of chain of command, and team registration logs for the Disaster Medical Assistant Team (DMAT), as well as other disaster medical relief teams, were evaluated. A total of 466 DMAT teams and 2,071 DMAT team members were deployed to the Kumamoto area, and 1,894 disaster medical relief teams and 8,471 disaster medical relief team member deployments followed. The DMAT established a medical coordination command post at several key disaster hospitals to designate medical coverage areas. The DMAT evacuated over 1,400 patients from damaged hospitals, transported medical supplies to affected hospitals, and coordinated 14 doctor helicopters used for severe patient transport. To keep constant medical and public health operations, DMAT provided medical coordination management until the local medical coordination was on-track. Several logistic teams, which are highly trained on operation and management of medical coordination command, were dispatched to assist management operation. The DMAT also helped to establish Disaster Coordination and Management Council at the prefectural- and municipal-level, and also coordinated command control for public health operations. The DMAT could provide not only medical assistance at the acute phase of the disaster, but also could provide medical coordination for public health and welfare. During the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake, needs of public health and welfare increased enormously due to the sudden evacuation of a large number of residents. To provide constant medical assistance at the disaster area, DMAT, logistic teams, and other disaster medical relief teams must operate constant coordination at the medical headquarter command. For future expected major earthquakes in Japan, it will be required to educate and secure high enough numbers of disaster medical assistance and health care personnel to provide continuous medical and public health care for the affected area residents.Kondo H, Koido Y, Kawashima Y, Kohayagawa Y, Misaki M, Takahashi A, Kondo Y, Chishima K, Toyokuni Y. Consideration of medical and public health coordination - experience from the 2016 Kumamoto, Japan Earthquake. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2019;34(2):149-154.

After hurricane, mobile pharmacy helps Florida veterans.

When the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) activated its all-volunteer clinician force to respond to Hurricane Michael, Sheryl Dezellem correctly guessed she would be serving on one of the department’s mobile pharmacy units in Panama City, Florida. “It is exciting. You have to kind of be ready for anything,” Dezellem said of her weeklong deployment with VA’s Disaster Emergency Medical Personnel System (DEMPS). Dezellem, a clinical pharmacy specialist at William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, was part of a relief team that staffed the mobile pharmacy during the final days of a 3-week deployment that ended in early November. Also on that team was Robert Cyparski, clinical pharmacy specialist at the VA Medical Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Both pharmacists, reached after they returned from Florida, said this was their second DEMPS deployment and their first time working in one of VA’s mobile pharmacy units. The pharmacy units are part of a fleet of customized vehicles that provide medical and supportive services to veterans during large-scale disasters and localized events that disrupt normal access to care.

The need to pay attention to teamwork in pre-hospital emergency

Background: The importance of teamwork to improve the quality of care and overcome the complexity of health system is clear to everyone. Therefore the current study aimed to review the studies in the field of team-work assessment in hospital and pre-hospital emergency. Methods: In this review study, scientific texts with the key-words of teamwork, paramedic, emergency medical technician, emergency department and inter-professional practice were searched in Google scholar, PubMed, scientific information database(SID), and Magiran. Results: Several studies have been found on the training and evaluation of teamwork in different parts, particularly in the treatment section. The results show that training and promotion of teamwork in health care lead to better performance and results, reducing clinical errors and reducing patient long length of stay In wards especially in the emergency department. Studies indicate that organizational support and teamwork training has the greatest impact in teamwork facilitate. In the pre-hospital emergency, there was a wide variety of teammates and less familiarity with teammates in EMS is associated with more occupational injuries. Conclusion: According to the aid team of pre-hospital emergency and their interaction with the hospital emergency department and other relief teams, training and evaluation of teamwork is important in EMS. However, there are few studies on teamwork in pre-hospital emergency especially in Iran. According to the importance of pre-hospital emergency mission, it is necessary to pay attention to teamwork in the emergency training curriculum and evaluation of teamwork in pre-hospital EMT.

Prévalence de la douleur en radiothérapie et amélioration de sa prise en charge

To assess pain prevalence, its features and its management in a radiotherapy department of a French public general hospital. To highlight strategies to improve pain screening and treatment. Designed in conjunction with pain management specialists, a cross-sectional study on pain was carried out. All patients treated in the department being interviewed with a standardised questionnaire during 2 days. Among 91 patients, 63.7% reported pain in daily life. They respectively represented 100%, 85.7% and 83.3% all of the patients treated for brain tumours, for bone metastasis and for head and neck cancers. Only 7.7% of patients reported pain during radiotherapy sessions. Among patients reporting pain, 70.7% received pain relief treatment and 60.8% of them thought this was adequate. While 51.6% of patients knew there was a specialist pain unit in the hospital, only 5.5% were offered a consultation with it. This unit provides non-pharmacological pain management techniques. This study confirms the importance, the underestimation and undertreatment, of pain management in radiotherapy departments. We recommend using a standardised questionnaire to identify patients at highest risk of pain, and the use of specialised pain relief teams when needed. A radiation therapist could act as a referrer to the pain relief team. Pain management remains teamwork, with links to specialised units.

One-month recovery experience of a disaster relief team functioning as an outpatient clinic following Super Typhoon Haiyan: Changes in distribution of trauma patients and required medical components.

As the distribution of trauma and non-trauma patients changes with time following a large-scale disaster, the required medical resources change commensurately. An understanding of these changes is necessary to provide effective medical support. Super Typhoon Yolanda, one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones, struck the central area of the Republic of the Philippines on November 8, 2013. The current authors worked together on one of the disaster relief medical teams from the Republic of Korea. The authors investigated differences in medical components provided to trauma and non-trauma patients and analyzed changes in the distribution of trauma patients over time in the Tacloban area affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda. The authors retrospectively reviewed patients admitted to an outpatient clinic established by our Korean Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) located in Tacloban City, Republic of the Philippines, between November 16 and December 13, 2013. Medical records were reviewed to collect patient information, including date of admission, sex, age, patient categorization as trauma or non-trauma, types of medical resource provided to patients, and times at which patients were transferred to other hospitals or clinics. During the study period, 5,827 patients were admitted to the KDRT clinic. Of these, 1,378 (23.6 percent) were trauma patients and 4,449 (76.4 percent) were non-trauma patients. The total patient number per week increased from the second to third weeks (1,553 to 2,426) and rapidly decreased from the third to fifth weeks (2,426 to 757) following the disaster. Trauma patients were consistently present, and the proportion of trauma patients rapidly increased from the third to fifth weeks (18 to 39 percent) following the disaster. Certain patient factors were significantly related to trauma, including patient age [OR (95% CI): 1.01 (1.01-1.01)], male sex [OR (95% CI): 2.12 (11.88-2.40)], frequency of laboratory tests [OR (95% CI): 0.19 (0.12-0.29)], required electrocardiography [OR (95% CI): 0.28 (0.14-0.50)], required ultrasound [OR (95% CI): 0.32 (0.21-0.47)], required invasive procedures [OR (95% CI): 53.50 (44.17-65.18)], required short-term monitoring [OR (95% CI): 1.25 (1.05-1.50)], and required prescriptions for medication [OR (95% CI): 0.33 (0.29-0.38)]. Other factors (eg, X-ray radiography and transfer from the clinic) were not associated with trauma. The proportions of trauma patients increased over time after disaster. The medical requirements for effective patient care were different between non-trauma and trauma patients.

Tethered Balloon Technology in Design Solutions for Rescue and Relief Team Emergency Communication Services.

The actions taken at the initial times of a disaster are critical. Catastrophe occurs because of terrorist acts or natural hazards which have the potential to disrupt the infrastructure of wireless communication networks. Therefore, essential emergency functions such as search, rescue, and recovery operations during a catastrophic event will be disabled. We propose tethered balloon technology to provide efficient emergency communication services and reduce casualty mortality and morbidity for disaster recovery. The tethered balloon is an actively developed research area and a simple solution to support the performance, facilities, and services of emergency medical communication. The most critical requirement for rescue and relief teams is having a higher quality of communication services which enables them to save people's lives. Using our proposed technology, it has been reported that the performance of rescue and relief teams significantly improved. OPNET Modeler 14.5 is used for a network simulated with the help of ad hoc tools (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:203-210).

Capacity Building of International Search and Rescue Teams Through the Classification System: Example from the Japan Disaster Relief Team and the INSARAG External Classification and Reclassification

Capacity Building of International Search and Rescue Teams Through the Classification System: Example from the Japan Disaster Relief Team and the INSARAG External Classification and Reclassification

Using high-resolution satellite imagery to provide a relief priority map after earthquake

After the earthquake occurrence, collecting correct information about the extent of damage is essential for managing critical conditions and allocating limited resources. The prepared building damage maps sometimes bring about waste of time required for rescuing individuals under the rubble by wrongly conducting rescue teams toward regions with a lower rescue priority. In this research, an algorithm based on using a proposed standard at database level was developed to prioritize damaged buildings by considering five key elements of land use type, the degree of damage to buildings, the land use differentiation index, time of the highest population density in each land use, and time of disaster’s incidence. The steps of the proposed method which was implemented in the MATLAB environment include: detecting buildings on the pre- and post-event imagery, implementing texture features for each candidate building, choosing the optimal features by genetic algorithm, determining the degree of building damage in three classes of negligible damage, substantial damage, and heavy damage by using the difference between chosen features as inputs of the designed neurofuzzy inference system. Data collected from field observations were compared to the output obtained from the proposed algorithm. This comparison presented a general accuracy of 88% and Kappa coefficient of 79% in the classification of buildings into three damage classes. The proposed standard then was used for classifying damaged buildings into relief priorities of high, medium, and low. Findings revealed that the relief priority map could be a basis for correct guidance of relief and rescue teams during crucial times following earthquakes.

Disaster Relief as a Political Tool: Analysing Indian and Chinese Responses after the Nepal Earthquakes

In the aftermath of the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal, China and India immediately sent relief teams. The relief efforts in Nepal showcase a competitive aspect of the two major regional powers, as China seeks to gradually increase its influence in South Asia. This article analyses how these two governments utilised relief efforts to increase influence in Nepal, within the wider context of the contentious Sino–Indian relationship. The Chinese and Indian relief responses after the Nepal earthquakes are extrapolated to assess their strategic utility.

Disaster Coverage Predication for the Emerging Tethered Balloon Technology: Capability for Preparedness, Detection, Mitigation, and Response.

A disaster is a consequence of natural hazards and terrorist acts, which have significant potential to disrupt the entire wireless communication infrastructure. Therefore, the essential rescue squads and recovery operations during a catastrophic event will be severely debilitated. To provide efficient communication services, and to reduce casualty mortality and morbidity during the catastrophic events, we proposed the Tethered Balloon technology for disaster preparedness, detection, mitigation, and recovery assessment. The proposed Tethered Balloon is applicable to any type of disaster except for storms. The Tethered Balloon is being actively researched and developed as a simple solution to improve the performance of rescues, facilities, and services of emergency medical communication in the disaster area. The most important requirement for rescue and relief teams during or after the disaster is a high quality of service of delivery communication services to save people's lives. Using our proposed technology, we report that the Tethered Balloon has a large disaster coverage area. Therefore, the rescue and research teams are given higher priority, and their performance significantly improved in the particular coverage area. Tethered Balloon features made it suitable for disaster preparedness, mitigation, and recovery. The performance of rescue and relief teams was effective and efficient before and after the disaster as well as can be continued to coordinate the relief teams until disaster recovery. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:222-231).

Performance and support pattern of nonlocal medical relief personnel during containment of coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic in Hubei province

Objective To examine the performance and support pattern of nonlocal medical relief personnel at designated hospitals during containment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in Hubei province for providing references to on-site support in the case of controlling similar respiratory infectious disease epidemic. Methods During 10 – 15 February 2020, we conducted a questionnaire survey and an interview among 279 medical relief personnel and 15 relief team leaders/managers from Sichuan province. Information on personnel structure, relief support pattern, relief work content and difficulties in relief work in the containment of COVID-19 in Hubei province were collected and analyzed. Results The patterns of relief support practice reported by the respondents included: (1) being in the charge of medication for all COVID-19 patients in a designated ward; (2) taking full responsibility for the medication of COVID-19 patients in a designated ward or department by a relief support team; (3) the same as the second pattern but by the relief support team and local medical professionals. The nonlocal medical relief personnel reported executing the relief work smoothly under local professional and social environment but reduced working performance due to the lack of medical equipments, without adequate accompanying articles for daily living, and overworking-induced low work efficiency. Conclusion The professional skill of relief personnel, material preparation and pre-service training are important for nonlocal medical relief personnel conducting efficient onsite support in public health emergency response.

Stressors of Korean Disaster Relief Team Members during the Nepal Earthquake Dispatch: a Consensual Qualitative Research Analysis.

We conducted in-depth interviews with 11 Korean Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) members about stress related to disaster relief work and analyzed the interview data using the Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) method in order to evaluate difficulties in disaster relief work and to develop solutions to these problems in cooperation with related organizations. Results showed that members typically experienced stress related to untrained team members, ineffective cooperation, and the shock and aftermath of aftershock experiences. Stress tended to stem from several factors: difficulties related to cooperation with new team members, the frightening disaster experience, and the aftermath of the disaster. Other stressors included conflict with the control tower, diverse problems at the disaster relief work site, and environmental factors. The most common reason that members participated in KDRT work despite all the stressors and difficulties was pride about the kind of work it involved. Many subjects in this study suffered from various stresses after the relief work, but they had no other choice than to attempt to forget about their experiences over time. It is recommended that the mental health of disaster relief workers will improve through the further development of effective treatment and surveillance programs in the future.

Deployment of Medical Relief Teams of the Indian Army in the Aftermath of the Nepal Earthquake: Lessons Learned.

In April 2015 a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Nepal. As part of relief operations named Operation Maitri, the Indian Armed Forces deployed 3 field hospitals in the disaster zone. Rapid deployment of mobile surgical teams to far-flung, inaccessible areas was done by helicopters. In an operational deployment spanning 1 month, a total of 7532 patients were treated and 105 surgeries were carried out on 83 patients. One-fifth of the patients were less than 18 years of age. One-third of the patients had traumatic injuries directly attributable to the earthquake, whereas the remaining patients were treated for diseases of poor sanitation and hygiene as well as chronic illness that had been neglected owing to the collapse of the local health infrastructure. Cases of traumatic injuries directly related to the earthquake were seen maximally on the 5th day after the index event but tapered off rapidly by the 10th day. Nontraumatic illness required more attention thereafter and a need was felt for separate child health and reproductive health services later in the mission. Although immediate management of injuries and surgical intervention in selected cases was possible, ensuring long-term care and rehabilitation of cases proved problematic. This was especially so for spinal injury cases. Data capturing by a paper-based system was found to be inadequate. The lessons learned from this mission have led to a reimagining of the composition of future relief operations. Apart from mobile surgical teams, on which conventional field hospitals are generally centered, a separate section for preventive medicine and child and maternal services is needed. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:394-398).

Healthcare Services Demand in Post-disaster Settings: The 2014 Earthquake in Ludian County, Yunnan Province, China

Healthcare relief teams dispatched to rural areas often face difficulties due to limited initial and ongoing health information in the affected community. The present study investigated patterns of healthcare service demand for a rural displaced population in a post-disaster situation. Three weeks after the 2014 Ludian County earthquake, the Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction (IDMR) at Sichuan University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University organized a disaster nursing team to support the rural community in Longtoushan, at the epicenter of the earthquake. A cross-sectional, records-based study of 2484 records obtained from a temporary hospital in Longtoushan (for the period of 14 September–1 October 2014) was conducted. The daily number of records by patients’ sociodemographic characteristics and medical diagnoses were plotted on a time series graph to explore the temporal change during the study period. Findings indicate that healthcare service demand from younger age groups was higher than that of the older adult group. Three major health problems were observed: respiratory disease, skin problems, and ear, eye, and throat (EET) problems. All of these very real health problems are chronic issues that require long-term care. They are not health issues directly related to the disaster emergency itself. Yet disaster relief nursing teams were selected on the basis of their ability to cope primarily with traumatic disaster-related injuries. The existing practice of teaming up disaster relief professions might not be optimal. To better understand the healthcare needs of a displaced population, short- and long-term planning is needed. Planning will allow disaster response professionals to better organize and deploy healthcare personnel to manage the above-listed problems in a post-disaster situation.

UAV- based Photogrammetry and Geocomputing for Hazards and Disaster Risk Monitoring – A Review

The unraveling of the human-induced climate-change crisis has put to the forth the ability of human-beings to impact the planet as a whole, but the discourse of politics has also emphasized the ability of the human race to adapt and counterweigh the environmental change, in turn increasing the public expectation that one should be able to control nature and its affects. Such cozy and reassured society consequently puts an increasing amount of pressure on hazards assessors, emergency and disaster managers “to get it right”, and not only to save the majority, but to save all. To reach such level of competency, emergency relief teams and disaster managers have to work always faster with an increasing need of high quality, high-resolution geospatial data. This need is being partly resolved with the usage of UAV (Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles), both on the ground and airborne. In this contribution, we present a review of this field of research that has increased exponentially in the last few years. The rapid democratization of the tool has lead to a significant price reduction and consequently a broad scientific usage that have resulted in thousands of scientific contributions over the last decade. The main usages of UAVs are the mapping of land features and their evolution over time, the mapping of hazards and disasters as they happen, the observation of human activity during an emergency or a disaster, the replacement of telecommunication structures impacted by a natural hazards and the transport of material to isolated groups. Those usages are mostly based on the use of single UAVs or UAVs as single agents eventually collaborating. The future is most certainly in the ability to accomplish complex tasks by leveraging the multiple platforms possibilities. As an example, we presented an experiment showing how multiple UAV platforms taking imagery together at the same time could provide true 4D (3D in time) of geo-processes such as river-bed evolution, or rockfalls, etc.

Research progress in disaster nursing competency framework of nurses in China

Abstract All types of frequent natural disasters, which seriously threaten the safety of human life and property, have become a great challenge all over the world. The dangerous and changeable environment in emergency rescue demands higher requirements for competency of the nurses who respond to a disaster. Disaster nursing combines medical science, sociology, psychology, and other disciplines; thus, it has become a comprehensive interdisciplinary branch of nursing. Disaster nursing has just recently been introduced to our country and is still in the stage of exploration. Nurses comprise the largest rescue force on disaster relief teams; therefore, disaster nursing competency is influential on the disaster response and recovery of victims after a disaster. Thus, this paper defines the concepts and elements of disaster nursing, including disaster nursing skill requirements and architectural framework. It will provide an important contribution to improving the overall level and comprehensive quality of disaster nursing competency of nurses in China.

CTMR-collaborative time-stamp based multicast routing for delay tolerant networks in post disaster scenario

Due to high chances of loss in connectivity, a Delay Tolerant Network (DTN) can be used to communicate between nodes without having any fixed connection between the source and destination. A Post Disaster Scenario presents a very challenging environment to communicate in and to analyze those situations is even a harder task to accomplish. It necessitates very efficient co-ordination to successfully accomplish situation analysis and resource management. Efficient co-ordination between relief and rescue teams in such situations can be achieved through multicasting, since it allows sending single packet to multiple destinations. Though multicasting in MANET has been studied extensively, but the implementation of efficient multicasting in DTN is a very challenging task due to its frequent partitioning characteristic. In this work a Collaborative Time-Stamp based Multicast Routing (CTMR) Protocol has been proposed. The messages have been implemented using customized bundles, where the destination of a multicast bundle consists of a group of nodes. Node grouping mechanism has been adopted to suit a post disaster condition. Collaborative bundle creation and selection mechanism has been utilized so that localized redundant information flow is minimized. Suitable time and space limits have been selected to further reduce redundancy. The group forwarding strategy is based on probabilistic measures calculated using historical encounter records, and on a multiple parameter priority queue. This protocol has been implemented in the ONE simulator and is compared with other existing unicast and multicast routing protocols on important routing parameters like delivery ratio and delivery delay. Comparison results show that CTMR can be a novel efficient solution to multicasting in a DTN.

Development and Verification of a Mobile Shelter Assessment System "Rapid Assessment System of Evacuation Center Condition Featuring Gonryo and Miyagi (RASECC-GM)" for Major Disasters.

Introduction There were 5,385 deceased and 710 missing in the Ishinomaki medical zone following the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred in Japan on March 11, 2011. The Ishinomaki Zone Joint Relief Team (IZJRT) was formed to unify the relief teams of all organizations joining in support of the Ishinomaki area. The IZJRT expanded relief activity as they continued to manually collect and analyze assessments of essential information for maintaining health in all 328 shelters using a paper-type survey. However, the IZJRT spent an enormous amount of time and effort entering and analyzing these data because the work was vastly complex. Therefore, an assessment system must be developed that can tabulate shelter assessment data correctly and efficiently. The objective of this report was to describe the development and verification of a system to rapidly assess evacuation centers in preparation for the next major disaster. Report Based on experiences with the complex work during the disaster, software called the "Rapid Assessment System of Evacuation Center Condition featuring Gonryo and Miyagi" (RASECC-GM) was developed to enter, tabulate, and manage the shelter assessment data. Further, a verification test was conducted during a large-scale Self-Defense Force (SDF) training exercise to confirm its feasibility, usability, and accuracy. The RASECC-GM comprises three screens: (1) the "Data Entry screen," allowing for quick entry on tablet devices of 19 assessment items, including shelter administrator, living and sanitary conditions, and a tally of the injured and sick; (2) the "Relief Team/Shelter Management screen," for registering information on relief teams and shelters; and (3) the "Data Tabulation screen," which allows tabulation of the data entered for each shelter, as well as viewing and sorting from a disaster headquarters' computer. During the verification test, data of mock shelters entered online were tabulated quickly and accurately on a mock disaster headquarters' computer. Likewise, data entered offline also were tabulated quickly on the mock disaster headquarters' computer when the tablet device was moved into an online environment. The RASECC-GM, a system for rapidly assessing the condition of evacuation centers, was developed. Tests verify that users of the system would be able to easily, quickly, and accurately assess vast quantities of data from multiple shelters in a major disaster and immediately manage the inputted data at the disaster headquarters. Ishii T , Nakayama M , Abe M , Takayama S , Kamei T , Abe Y , Yamadera J , Amito K , Morino K . Development and verification of a mobile shelter assessment system "Rapid Assessment System of Evacuation Center Condition featuring Gonryo and Miyagi (RASECC-GM)" for major disasters. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2016;31(5):539-546.

Communicating Radiation Risk to the Population of Fukushima.

Radiological specialists from Nagasaki University have served on the medical relief team organized at Fukushima Medical University Hospital (Fukushima City) ever since the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. Furthermore, we have conducted the radiation crisis communication efforts by spreading correct information on the health effects of radiation as 'advisors on radiation health risk control'. Nagasaki University has been assisting the reconstruction efforts of Kawauchi Village in Fukushima Prefecture, which was the first village to declare that residents could safely return to their homes because radiation doses were found to be at comparatively low levels. In April 2013, Nagasaki University and the Kawauchi government office concluded an agreement concerning comprehensive cooperation toward reconstruction of the village. As a result, we established a satellite facility of the university in the village. In conclusion, training of specialists who can take responsibility for long-term risk communication regarding the health effects of radiation as well as crisis communication in the initial phase of the accident is an essential component of all such recovery efforts. Establishment of a training system for such specialists will be very important both for Japan and other countries worldwide.