Lessons Learned from Natural Disasters around Digital Health Technologies and Delivering Quality Healthcare

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health 2023-03, Vol.20 (5), p.4542
• Main Authors: Lokmic-Tomkins, Zerina, Bhandari, Dinesh, Bain, Chris, Borda, Ann, Kariotis, Timothy Charles, Reser, David
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Australia; Case studies; Casualties; Climate adaptation; Climate change; Communicable Disease Control; Communication; Computerized physician order entry; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Delivery of Health Care; Digital technology; Disaster victims; Disasters; Disease transmission; Electronic health records; Global temperature changes; Health care; Health care delivery; Health care reform; Health services; Humans; Information storage; Internet of Things; Interoperability; Medical care; Medical personnel; Medical records; Medicine; Natural Disasters; Nepal; Pandemics; Patient education; Patients; Personal health; Public health; Quality management; Resilience; Review; Social networks; Technology and civilization; Telemedicine; Weather; Well being
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20054542

As climate change drives increased intensity, duration and severity of weather-related events that can lead to natural disasters and mass casualties, innovative approaches are needed to develop climate-resilient healthcare systems that can deliver safe, quality healthcare under non-optimal conditions, especially in remote or underserved areas. Digital health technologies are touted as a potential contributor to healthcare climate change adaptation and mitigation, through improved access to healthcare, reduced inefficiencies, reduced costs, and increased portability of patient information. Under normal operating conditions, these systems are employed to deliver personalised healthcare and better patient and consumer involvement in their health and well-being. During the COVID-19 pandemic, digital health technologies were rapidly implemented on a mass scale in many settings to deliver healthcare in compliance with public health interventions, including lockdowns. However, the resilience and effectiveness of digital health technologies in the face of the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters remain to be determined. In this review, using the mixed-methods review methodology, we seek to map what is known about digital health resilience in the context of natural disasters using case studies to demonstrate what works and what does not and to propose future directions to build climate-resilient digital health interventions.