The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS)

Abstract

The rescue, treatment, and evacuation of thousands of patients from a natural disaster or armed conflict that is coordinated by the National Disaster Medical System must be performed in accordance to health care standards recognized in this country. Without an effective communication system, morbidity and mortality will needlessly rise. A medical communication protocol that addresses this problem is proposed.

Telecommunications in Israeli field hospitals deployed to three crisis zones

“…If not, it will be ineffective and will place an extra burden on the local authorities. A foreign field hospital must use various types of communication in order to meet the requirements of operating the hospital and of allowing proper communication with a wide variety of information consumers (Niemtzow et al, 1993;Martchenke and Pointer, 1994;Tanaka et al, 1998). This includes communication with the home base, between various members in different sections of the team, with other delegations and with local authorities, including ambulance services and sometimes with the military or air force for air evacuation (Miyamoto et al, 1999).…”

“…In a mass casualty incident such as a devastating earthquake, some types of communication equipment might not be appropriate, whereas other gear originally thought to be superfluous could prove useful. The greater the distance to the deployment site, the greater the need for sophisticated means of telecommunication for use by different consumers, including communication inside the hospital, with teams on peripheral missions, with local authorities, with home support, and with the media (Niemtzow et al, 1993;Martchenke and Pointer, 1994;Stratton et al, 1996). Home communications include telephone, Internet, email and videoconferencing.…”

Untitled

“…Also, wireless LAN and WAN will become important for local communication. Relatively antiquated communication modes such as Amateur Radio have enjoyed resurgence, and coupled with satellite Internet capability may well revolutionize our effective response to disaster care [ 13 ].…”