A mobile health network disaster management system

Abstract

A common occurrence in almost all full-scale natural disasters is the rapid destruction of the telecommunication infrastructure as the inevitable unfolds, which tends to halt the necessary communications between the humanitarian operators and the people in need. In such scenarios, the deployment of wireless networks would provide fast and temporary remedies, however these networks normally do not provide services to the end-users and ordinary people, instead they provide connectivity between groups of end-users administered by a local service provider. From a range of services provided to the end-users by the humanitarian operators, healthcare is by far the top priority. This is considered through the utilization of smartphones in a Mobile Health (mHealth) perspective, which is an emerging concept for monitoring and tracking end-user health conditions. This article considers an mHealth system used in a tsunami-stricken disaster scenario, including a discussion on the most recent advances of Device to Device (D2D) and LTE-Direct technologies.The future of wireless and cellular disaster recovery systems is expected to rely heavily on direct Device-to-Device (D to D) communication, eliminating the need of the functioning telecommunication infrastructure. Reference [11] has identified the following 7 key technology goals for future public disaster recovery systems: LTE-based communication systems, resource sharing mechanisms, hierarchical dispatch-chain, unified voice/data/video communication channels, integrated security, privacy, and reliability, scalability and system reconfiguration, and real-time low-latency communication responses. These goals will be coupled with Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN)

M-Health Solutions Using 5G Networks and M2M Communications

“…D2D is an excellent alternative for devices to communicate in situations where the conventional cellular communications link is unavailable, such as natural disaster scenarios. 18 In such cases, connectivity between health professionals and medical devices is among the highest priorities. B y the end of 2020, hundreds of millions of devices will be working with healthcarerelated M2M technology.…”

Real-Time Remote-Health Monitoring Systems: a Review on Patients Prioritisation for Multiple-Chronic Diseases, Taxonomy Analysis, Concerns and Solution Procedure

“…The management and organisation of all the responsibilities and resources necessary for addressing emergency cases cover all the humanitarian aspects, that is, recovery, preparedness and response, to decrease the harmful effects of natural disasters, indicating the system of mHealth management. These studies applied the system of mHealth in a 'tsunami-stricken disaster' scenario, as well as proposed a platform for developing 'a field accident and emergency centre intelligent monitoring system' [105,106]. The study of [107] presented an assessment system of patients in real time on the basis of 'mobile electronic triaging' and has been performed by sensor-detected information and crowdsourcing.…”

Bushfire Disaster Monitoring System Using Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN)

“…A few technologies and platforms are proposed for the next generation disaster recovery systems [2]:…”

“…The need for disaster monitoring and recovery mechanisms has arisen as long as natural disasters and their adverse effects have been known to humankind. The long list of natural and man-made disasters include: floods; heavy snowfalls; wild/bush fires; storms/hurricanes; tsunamis; earthquakes; pandemics, and; nuclear disasters [1,2]. Despite there being a strong need to implement communications between a disaster-stricken area and the disaster managing offices in local or global agencies such as the United Nations and the European Commission, the goal is to secure the necessary communications to support first responder activities with a strategy to restore network services in the initial aftermath [3].…”