Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
4.2.1 Emergency Management
Coordination, information sharing, and decision-making are the three fundamental axes
for the management of an emergency situation [5] [21]. Optimization of those three
axes reduces the response time, one of the objectives of any system for managing the
emergency. Several emergency management approaches exist.
AMBULANCE[40] aims to create medical portable devices that allow remote,
medium and long distance tele-medicine specialists support. The device allows the
transmission of vital signs and patient images from anywhere using the mobile phone
network.
ARTEMIS [36] is based on a previous knowledge base to make decisions. It is
based on an expert system that follows rules and that, according to the input parameters
added, make a decision based on rules applied in other cases available in the knowledge
memory.
PHERIS[26] introduces a new protocol to replace the one used in China to deal with
the SARS. PHERIS consists of 4 systems: the surveillance, control, action and support.
The surveillance system captures emergencies and reports to the control system. The
control system decides whether to take measures to raise the alert level and make de-
cisions to meet the emergency. The action system receives the orders from the control
system and carries them out in response to the emergency. The support system is re-
sponsible for ensuring that all protocol are followed correctly and that the actions are
carried out correctly. From the point of view of communication, it creates a virtual net-
work of five layers and three layers. The layers are defined by the magnitude of the
organization involved. The levels will depend on the organization.
MASCAL [11] is a system that seeks to integrate a solution based on software and
hardware to improve the management of a hospital during a large scale emergency. It
integrates TacMedCS (section 5.2.3) and it provides a visual management of hospital
resources and their locations supporting different types of views depending on the type
of medical center. It also has support for the staff registration and management of indi-
vidual local areas, such as operating rooms, emergency rooms, radiology, and so on.
CWME [25] is a framework for emergency management that provides a collaborative
virtual work space for the organizers of the various fields of emergency. In this way, one
can communicate easily and create joint documents defining the plans to deploy.
WIISARD [23] is a project whose main objective is to use wireless networks to assist
in the coordination and care of victims in large-scale emergencies. WIISARD proposes
providing emergency personnel (medical personnel both in the field and coordinating
staff) with medical and tracking data in real-time of all casualties that occur during
the emergency. WIISARD proposes to deploy a network of nodes CalMesh as soon
as arriving at the emergency scene. This network of nodes can be connected both to
the medical devices as well as to classification devices (Section 5.2.3) in the entire
area of the emergency. When a victim is found, a tracking and monitoring device is
placed on him, and the emergency personnel introduce in it the state of the victim,
the treatment and the identification data. These data will travel over the network to the
emergency control and management system where they will be sent to all devices in the
emergency field through the same network and to the nearest hospital via the Internet. It
also shows the list of available resources (hospital beds, medicines, ambulances, and so
Search WWH ::
Custom Search