Disaster informatics

Disaster Field Office (DFO) - The office established in or near the disaster area that supports federal and state response as well as recovery operations. The Disaster Field Office houses the Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO), the Emergency Response Team (ERT), the State Coordinating Officer (SCO), and support staff, disaster informatics - The theoretical and practical operation of processing information and communicating in a disaster situation. 

Teich, J. M., Wagner, M. M., Mackenzie, C. R, Schafer, K. O. (2002). The informatics response in disaster, terrorism, and war [Eiectronic version]. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 9, 97-104. 

The MEDLINE and IEEE Xplore databases were searched with the following key words wireless telemedicine emergency, wireless telemedicine ambulance, wireless telemedicine disaster, wireless ambulance, wireless disaster, and wireless emergency. The number of journal papers found to be published under these categories is around 220. Out of these a total of 40 applications were selected and are briefly summarized in Tables 10.2 through 10.4. We tried to select systems that cover the whole spectrum of medical informatics applications for emergency cases that have been published in the last decade. 

The three cases here illustrate public health informatics concerns with data, information, and knowledge management in areas where local governments have responsibilities for service delivery—maternal and child health, disaster rapid response, and promotion of healthy lifestyles. 

Huang, G. M., Ghan, E., and Hyder, A. A., Web 2.0 and Internet social networking A new tool for disaster management —Lessons from Taiwan, BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 10(1), p. 57, 2010. 

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