natural disasters

See the following -

European Commission Joint Research Center And OpenStreetMap

Séverin Menard | Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team | May 26, 2013

Late March, just coming back from Burundi, I have been invited by Guido Lemoine from the Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen – IPSC, Geospatial EMergency Management Action – GEMMA, that is part of the Joint Research Center (the European Commission’s in-house science service)... Read More »

FIRST Response Radio – Life Saving Information In Disaster

Mike Adams | FrontlineSMS | June 19, 2013

In times of disaster radio not only saves lives, it can also bring hope and critical information to the affected community. [...] In times like these, people are in desperate need of news and information on how to get to safety and how to survive. However, the unfortunate trend seen recently is that when radio is so important, many times it goes off the air and does not come back until well after the emergency is over. Read More »

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 »

FrontlineSMS In The Philippines And The Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) Response

Laura Walker Hudson | FrontlineSMS | November 17, 2013

In the aftermath of devastating Typhoon Haiyan, we’re working with networks of aid agencies to support the international response any way we can – but we know that the first and most important responders are already in the Philippines. Read More »

Geodata-Fueled Map Relates Storms To Energy Facilities

Reid Davenport | FCW | July 11, 2013

A new interactive map for tracking storms in real time, released on July 9 by the Energy Information Administration, aggregates some 30 sets of geodata from a wide range of agencies and organizations -- all in an effort to monitor the effect such storms could have on critical energy infrastructure. Read More »

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 »

GWU Milken Institute School of Public Health releases report on deaths due to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and outlines steps to protect the most vulnerable communities from disasters

Press Release | GWU Milken Institute School of Public Health | August 28, 2018

In an independent report published today, researchers at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health (GW Milken Institute SPH) estimated there were 2,975 excess deaths in Puerto Rico due to Hurricane Maria from September 2017 through the end of February 2018. The researchers also identified gaps in the death certification and public communication processes and went on to make recommendations that will help prepare Puerto Rico for future hurricanes and other natural disasters.

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Hackathons Bring Open Source Innovation to Humanitarian Aid

In open source software, end users, decision makers, subject matter experts, and developers from around the world can work together to create great solutions. There are a lot of mature open source projects out there already in the field of humanitarian and development aid, for example: Ushahidi and Sahana in crisis management and information gathering, OpenMRS for medical records, Martus for secure information sharing in places with limited freedom of speech, and Mifos X, an open platform for financial inclusion for people in poor areas where financial services such as savings, payments, and loans are not offered...

Health Organizations Implore Congress to Fund Public Health Surveillance Systems

HLN Consulting joined more than eighty organizations, institutions, and companies in imploring Congress to fund public health surveillance systems. The appropriations request letters – one to the House and one to the Senate – seek one billion in funding over ten years (and $100 million in FY 2020) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This funding would allow CDC, state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments to move from sluggish, manual, paper-based data collection to seamless, automated, interoperable IT systems and to recruit and retain skilled data scientists to use them.

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HHS Announces First External Class Of The HHS Innovation Fellows Program

Press Release | Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) | November 13, 2012

Today, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the first class of the HHS External Innovation Fellows.  Selected from an applicant pool of more than 100 innovators, the six External Fellows will spend the next six to 12 months working on projects focused on solving critical health care problems. Read More »

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 »

HIEs: Help in Disasters?

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee | Healthcare Info Security | November 2, 2012

How big of a role did health information exchanges play in providing access to records during Superstorm Sandy, and what lessons can be learned? Federal officials will address these questions, says HIE expert Lee Stevens. Read More »

HIMSS18: Key Exhibitor Booths for Open Solutions, Collaboration, and Interoperability

The annual gargantuan HIMSS conference is back at Las Vegas with over 40,000 participants, over a thousand exhibitors, and more than 600 presentations. As we saw last year in Orlando, more than half of the conference presentations are focused on applications based on open source such as FHIR and Blockchain, and a great emphasis on open solutions for interoperability. With so many presentations and exhibits, it is impossible to provide a full overview. Below are a few of some of the most interesting exhibits of open solutions this year.

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HIMSS19: Open Source Software for Disaster Preparedness and Response

Although not officially listed as a track at the HIMSS19 conference, there are a series of very important presentations on the use of open source software for disaster preparedness and response. This is a critical topic that we have covered extensively in Open Health News. As we detailed in this article, there was a major failure in being able to provide victims of Hurricane Harvey, as well as Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria with access to their medical records. Few emergency medical responders could access their records either. The two success stories that came out of the hurricanes were two open source electronic health record (EHR) systems, OpenEMR and the VA's open source VistA EHR.

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Hospitals Face Hurricane Sandy Power Outages, Failed Generators

Karen Cheung-Larivee | FierceHealthcare | October 30, 2012

Even with preparation, back-up systems failed at NYU Langone Medical Center last night, forcing the evacuation of all 215 patients to nearby hospitals, including Sloan Kettering and Mount Sinai, The New York Times reported. There were large-scale power failures in critical areas, including the emergency department, the transplant unit and labor and delivery.
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