Hurricane Sandy

See the following -

Who Are They Going To Blame?

Paul Levy | Not Running A Hospital | October 31, 2012

Once the dust settles, or the flood water recedes (in this case), someone will conduct a root cause analysis to figure out why the emergency generator at NYU Langone Medical Center failed to operate during Hurricane Sandy when the Con Edison power supply was disrupted.  Given that this investigation will involve two sectors of society (politics and health care) most characterized by a need to find someone to blame, some poor person at the hospital will be deemed to be the culprit. Read More »

#Sandy’s Lessons For Government Social Media

Joseph Marks | Nextgov | November 16, 2012

Genevieve Contey and David Miller gave a presentation Wednesday about their experience managing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s social media platforms during Hurricane Sandy. Read More »

6 Smartphone Apps To Help Fight Hurricane Sandy's Fury

Ian Paul | TechHive | October 29, 2012

If you live in the Northeastern United States and are bracing for Hurricane Sandy's wallop, your smartphone can become a handy tool if disaster strikes. Read More »

Academic Biomedical Research Community Should Take Action to Build Resilience to Disasters

Press Release | The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine | August 10, 2017

The academic biomedical research community should improve its ability to mitigate and recover from the impacts of disasters, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The consequences of recent disasters, from hurricanes to cyberattacks, have shown that the investments of the U.S. federal government and other research sponsors -- which total about $27 billion annually -- are not uniformly secure. The report recommends 10 steps that academic research institutions, researchers, and research sponsors should take to bolster the resilience of academic biomedical research.

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CMS: Databases Can Be Used For Disaster Planning To Aid Vulnerable Populations

Susan D. Hall | FierceHealthIT | April 26, 2013

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will allow health information from eight databases to be used to identify vulnerable people who might need help during an emergency. Read More »

Congressman Promotes Western NY Tech Economy

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | December 20, 2012

While most of Washington D.C. is engulfed in fiscal cliff negotiations, Congressman Brian Higgins, a Democrat from western New York, is urging lawmakers to support wider use of electronic health records and is also touting his home region’s somewhat bustling health IT economy. Read More »

Crisis Communication: Saving Time and Lives in Disasters through Smarter Social Media

As the worst bushfires seen for generations in New South Wales raged across the Blue Mountains, Southern Highlands and the Central Coast two years ago, people urgently needed fast, reliable information – and many turned to their phones to get it. The NSW Rural Fire Service was prepared with a smartphone app, Fires Near Me, which was downloaded almost 200,000 times. At the height of the fires, its Facebook page was recording more than a million views an hour. A social media campaign also helped the NSW Rural Fire Service Facebook community more than double from 120,000 to 280,000, while its Twitter reach jumped from 20,000 to 37,000 followers. Crucially, this helped to alert people to danger areas and places to avoid driving near...

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Crowd-Funding Draws Donations For Sandy Relief

Brett Zongker | ABC News | December 22, 2012

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, some who lost their homes or businesses have turned to crowd-funding websites to elicit a faster and more direct response than they could expect from the government or traditional charities. Read More »

Flesh-eating Bacteria, Cancer-causing Chemicals, and Mold: Harvey and Irma's Lingering Health Threats

Julia Belluz | Vox | September 28, 2017

In the weeks following Hurricane Irma, parts of Florida have been awash in millions of gallons of sewage. Meanwhile, in Texas, oil refineries and chemical plants have dumped a year’s worth of cancer-causing pollutants into the air following Hurricane Harvey. In both states, doctors are on the lookout for an uptick in respiratory problems, skin infections, and mosquito-borne diseases brought on by the water and mold the storms left behind...

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FOSS Disaster Relief Projects Can Help In The Wake Of Hurricane Sandy

Sam Dean | OStatic | October 31, 2012

People in several states in the Eastern United States are still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Sandy, and there are many kinds of disaster relief efforts going on...As evidenced in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, technology--including open source technology--can help organize disaster relief efforts and coordinate people. Here are just a few examples of tools that can make a difference. Read More »

From Coding To Tangible Results: FEMA’s First Open Data Town Hall

Jason Lindesmith | FEMA | April 11, 2014

The approach to FEMA’s first-ever Data Town Hall was refreshing because our OpenFEMA team harked just as much about project management and results as they did about getting creative when using FEMA’s data. The attendees were asked to break into five challenge tracks: GIS, Disaster Assistance Assessment Dashboard, Accessibility, API and Fire Viz; each with a specific project and private sector team lead.

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Google Tells Feds How To Get Emergency Info To The Top Of Search Results

Joseph Marks | Nextgov | June 4, 2013

Offering relevant information in open, machine-readable formats may be the most important thing government can do to keep the public informed during a natural disaster, Google and other technology leaders told members of Congress Tuesday. Read More »

Harvey Evacuees Leave Their Belongings—and Health Records—Behind

Megan Molteni | Wired | September 1, 2017

Digitizing the world's medical records was supposed to make doctors' lives easier and patients' lives longer. But unlike banking and shopping, medicine has had a rough time transitioning to the new digital order. Because health care providers use different systems for their electronic health care records, it’s still difficult for a patient’s data to follow them through the medical ecosystem...

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HHS Offers Hurricane Guidance to Healthcare Facilities

Greg Slabodkin | Health Data Management | September 13, 2017

With Florida still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Irma, a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services has issued draft guidance to help healthcare facilities with disaster planning and recovery for major hurricanes. Based on lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, Harvey and others, the document—from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response—provides an overview of the “potential significant public health and medical response and recovery needs facing hurricane- and severe storm-affected areas.” Among the topics in the draft are those covering health information management...

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HIE Critical To Care Continuity In Natural Disasters

Dan Bowman | FierceHealthIT | November 2, 2012

As some hospitals in the New York metropolitan area were forced to evacuate patients and send them to nearby facilities in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, health information exchange proved to be a vital tool in making those transitions as smooth as possible. Read More »