Mobile medical disaster relief technology : enhancing communication, medical logistics, data creation, and crisis mapping for vulnerable communities

Abstract

This thesis explores the field of disaster relief and recovery, and the application of emerging technologies that are both used by, and use the data generated by communities affected by natural disaster. This thesis analyzes humanitarian disaster relief logistics conducted in Haiti following the devastation of the January 2010 earthquake, and melds this analysis with disaster relief technology design, thus applying a need-based approach to the creation of a new disaster relief technology - Mobile Medical Emergency Responders (MMER). The first section of the thesis establishes a foundation for both the global and localized need for a telephony system such as the one I am designing - MMER. It does so by examining issues such as disaster relief coordination and information management challenges in Haiti, with the concurrent need for direct communication between volunteers and affected communities. It uncovers the challenges of disaster relief logistics and the medical supply chain, and the way in which MMER's crisis mapping component responds directly to these vulnerabilities. Low physician density and pitiful health care access is underscored, further supporting the need for the direct medical guidance and knowledge provided through MMER to its caller. Fundamentally, the global issue of illiteracy is stressed, in addition to the dearth of disaster relief technology to address this gap. This need is addressed by the unique position of MMER as a voice-enabled system. After both the context and need for MMER are established, the specification of the technology that could respond to these challenges is created and presented in MMER's system design. The concept of MMER is critiqued and vetted by disaster relief professionals, its design further revised, and a site selection analysis is carried out through geospatial exclusion to determine which region is best suited for the launch and use of MMER. Finally, a usability pilot survey is assembled in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the regional and local cultural context in which MMER would be implemented, and to analyze the interviewees' current access and use of mobile phones and medical services. A humanitarian disaster relief tool, MMER would be low (to no) cost for its immediate users. Catering to illiterate, disaster-affected communities, MMER would make it possible to unite affected communities and their self-reported needs directly to global volunteers and medical expertise, and to provide isolated communities in developing countries access to healthcare information through landlines and mobile phones.