Themes & Tracks

TRACK TITLE

Information systems for disaster healthcare

INTRODUCTION OF THE TRACK:

Healthcare is often a casualty of disasters.  After a disaster there is often a great deal of disruption to healthcare services along with the casualties caused by the disaster itself.  Disruption of normal healthcare systems can cause increases in both morbidity and mortality, for example by interruption of normal care for chronic conditions, because of movement of people or destruction of infrastructure. This theme aims to address how to exploit the new e-health technologies such as the electronic health record, tele and mobile health, big data analytics, etc. that are revolutionizing “standard” healthcare by improving quality, safety, cost-effectiveness, and access.

This theme will cover how healthcare systems can be made more robust in the face of disaster by the use of suitable information systems and digital technologies. It will also address how technologies  and approaches used in eHealth can be used  in the post-disaster environment.

TRACK OBJECTIVES:

  • The session intends to foster opportunities for paper presenters and participants to share knowledge and gain insights on the:
  • Role of health information systems throughout the disaster lifecycle
  • Issues in using eHealth approaches during disasters
  • The role of eHealth systems in  facilitating communication and coordination between organisations responding to disasters
  • Skills and competencies needed for the successful use of eHealth systems throughout the disaster lifecycle.
  • EHealth Technologies that can be used  for healthcare in disasters

TRACK EXAMPLE TOPICS:

  • Technologies and systems supporting and enhancing public health care planning and preparing for, responding to and recovering from disasters, emergencies and outbreaks
  • Public health monitoring
  • E-health technologies
  • Health management systems
  • Systems for managing the suspected and confirmed outbreaks, both domestic and international
  • Developing nations and health information systems in disasters.

TRACK CO-CHAIRS:

Dave Parry (coordinating co-chair)
Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
[email protected]

Tony Norris
Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
[email protected]

Ray Kirk
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
[email protected]

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Dave Parry 

Dave Parry is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Computer Science, in the AUT School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences. Originally from Wales, Dave has been at AUT since  2000 apart from sabbaticals in Australia, the UK and Bhutan. Dave’s research interests include artificial intelligence, health informatics and ehealth along with mobile computing and  Radiofrequency identification.  More recentely he has been involved in an international collaboration  on disaster ehealth.

Tony Norris2

Tony Norris

Tony Norris is an Adjunct Professor at AUT (Auckland University of Technology) and Professor Emeritus at Massey University, New Zealand. He has authored over 150 peer-reviewed research articles and books in several fields including, chemistry, mathematics, information systems, and e-health. Over the past decade his research interests have spanned two fields; e-health and disaster management. More recently, these interests have combined to develop a new paradigm, disaster e-health (DEH), that applies information and e-health technologies to achieve a dramatic improvement in the quality and appropriateness of disaster health planning, response, and recovery. Key research questions concern inter-agency communication and terminology, the data sets used by agencies in disaster situations, the selection of appropriate e-health technologies to improve DEH, protocols for their application, and their integration with existing care processes.

Ray Kirk

Ray Kirk

Professor Ray Kirk’s expertise encompasses a broad range of techniques used in health technology assessment, health informatics, health services research and evaluation and policy based research. Ray has a special interest in evidence based health care and has presented widely at conferences on health technology assessment issues.