Lessons Learned from Natural Disasters around Digital Health Technologies and Delivering Quality Healthcare

Abstract

As climate change drives increased intensity, duration and severity of weather-related events that can lead to natural disasters and mass casualties, innovative approaches are needed to develop climate-resilient healthcare systems that can deliver safe, quality healthcare under non-optimal conditions, especially in remote or underserved areas. Digital health technologies are touted as a potential contributor to healthcare climate change adaptation and mitigation, through improved access to healthcare, reduced inefficiencies, reduced costs, and increased portability of patient information. Under normal operating conditions, these systems are employed to deliver personalised healthcare and better patient and consumer involvement in their health and well-being. During the COVID-19 pandemic, digital health technologies were rapidly implemented on a mass scale in many settings to deliver healthcare in compliance with public health interventions, including lockdowns. However, the resilience and effectiveness of digital health technologies in the face of the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters remain to be determined. In this review, using the mixed-methods review methodology, we seek to map what is known about digital health resilience in the context of natural disasters using case studies to demonstrate what works and what does not and to propose future directions to build climate-resilient digital health interventions.

Exploring Volunteer Pharmacists’ Experiences in Responding to 2023 Türkiye Earthquakes: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study

“…13 Access to the Internet is crucial for effective medication distribution in affected areas. Incorporating digital health technologies 9 into disaster plans and expanding the clinical roles of pharmacists, including prescribing and medication counseling, would be highly beneficial in emergency situations with physician shortages. 59,60…”

“…59,60 While social media can serve as a platform to inspire individuals to engage in humanitarian efforts, 37,42 it can also lead to the spread of inauthentic information, misinformation, and disinformation if not properly supervised. 9 To address this issue, it is essential to establish clear and reliable communication channels. This can be achieved by creating official channels, such as dedicated websites or hotlines, where accurate and verified information regarding medication needs and donation processes can be shared.…”

“…7 Witnessing the devastation and suffering of survivors, coupled with the urgent need to provide critical care can lead to high levels of stress, anxiety, and trauma. 6,8 Despite studies exploring emotional and physical implications for health-care professionals involved in disaster response, 9,10 studies presenting valuable data regarding pharmacists’ emotional experiences are rare.…”

Disaster management – preparation and planning for acute care facilities

“…Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used for predicting areas impacted by disasters through terrain and infrastructure mapping, monitoring and managing of large, displaced populations, and logistical management of care delivery. It can also be used for training and simulation for healthcare workers, computer-aided diagnosis and consultation, and decision analysis [29]. Resilience can be defined as a process to harness resources to sustain wellbeing, and digital resilience as the application of this concept to technology, the internet and the digital age.…”

INtelligent Toolkit for Reconnaissance, assEssments and prehospital support in Perilous InciDents

“…Ground-breaking technological progress in the 21st century has triggered the increased use of new technologies in recent years in catastrophic incident situations, with a particular impact on the healthcare eld 1,2 .…”