142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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New Technologies and Methods for Post-Disaster Health Assessment and Disease Surveillance: A Case Study from Typhoon Haiyan

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 : 8:30 AM - 8:50 AM

Andrew Schroeder, PhD, MPP , Research and Analysis, Direct Relief, Goleta, CA
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Typhoon Haiyan provides the unfortunate context for this case study on communications with affected communities. Several organizations with complementary capabilities joined in an innovative effort to enable enterprise communications across connected and disconnected environments that immediately saved lives and established needed 2-way information flow to assess critical health infrastructure conditions, monitor reportable diseases, sustain continuity of business and support community life. This case will examine how this effort was able to 1) almost immediately establish a communication network that was both mobile and infinitely scalable; 2) enable coordination among relief personnel and affected communities for quick triage with targeted aid; 3) establish a security-sensitive network for information sharing and logistics that removed traditional barriers between affected communities, responding organizations, and governments; and 4) integrate seamlessly with analytical tools to facilitate quick and powerful decision making. Much of the information infrastructure developed within this disaster response context has transitioned over since Typhoon Haiyan to support disaster resiliency efforts, ongoing health and shelter infrastructure assessment and routine disease surveillance in and around the Tacloban metropolitan area. 

The team members include Direct Relief – expert in organizing teams and supplies for major disaster response efforts, Palantir Technologies – provider of software for data integration and analysis, and DeLorme – a non-traditional connectivity service provider. Field implementing partners included the Philippines Red Cross, the Tacloban Health Cluster, Team Rubicon and Gawad Kalinga. On behalf of this consortium, Direct Relief will present and discuss the specifics of the effort and the opportunities to dramatically change the future landscape of emergency health informatics and disaster response.

Learning Areas:

Communication and informatics

Learning Objectives:
Describe the use of satellite-enabled data collection and online mapping for health assessment and disease surveillance during post-disaster conditions. Demonstrate the need for effective, network-independent health data collection and analysis for disaster response activities. Assess the provisional outcomes of the Palantir MIMOSA integrated data project during Typhoon Haiyan.

Keyword(s): Data Collection and Surveillance, Disasters

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Andrew Schroeder leads the Department of Research and Analysis at Direct Relief, where he specializes in GIS, spatial analysis and health informatics for global health and disaster relief. He received his PhD from the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University and his Masters in Public Policy from the Ford School at the University of Michigan.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 5055.0: Global Health Informatics; Building Capacity for Disease Surveillance