Innovations in health protection and disaster medicine

Our healthcare system is regularly confronted with new challenges, be it by sudden disasters, or due to long-term progressive changes, such as the demographic change and climate change.

Climate change affects all areas of social activity and thus specifically the health and well-being of the general population as well. The impact on people’s health can manifest at three levels:

1. Direct effects – e.g., by increasing frequency of extreme heat waves and natural disasters.
2. Indirect effects via the ecosystem – e.g., by the geographical spread of disease-transmitting organisms due to environmental changes.
3. Socially transmitted consequences – e.g., the spread of infectious diseases, which in the worst case can lead to pandemics and overload the healthcare system.

Climate change is continually changing the framework in which or health care system needs to operate. Therefore, it is imperative to identify and develop future-proof solutions that will perform in tomorrow’s world.

At the same time, our society is changing in its age structure: in aging societies, technical assistance systems for senior citizens are becoming increasingly important and present new challenges for rescue services. In a pan-European pilot campaign led by TIP, a broad spectrum of digital solutions for Europe-wide integrated care was developed and evaluated with the aim of enabling senior citizens to remain active while maintaining a high standard of living. The demographic change and its associated challenges for aged care further affect rural regions much more severely, which therefore require locally adapted, participatory concepts for health care.

Natural disasters such as droughts, forest fires, storms and floods are already becoming more frequent due to climate change, constantly presenting new challenges for civil protection. Since 2009, TIP participated in research projects in the field of disaster medicine that support the work of first responders and civil protection agencies. The goal is to identify innovative and sustainable solutions that provide the best possible support for emergency response coordinators and first responders in preventing harm and saving lives.

Disaster medicine includes the medical care and organizational measures in the event of a disaster or major emergency, when individual care for the injured or ill is temporarily unavailable or limited, including events, where triage of the critically injured becomes necessary. In such situations, new technologies and decision-making aids evaluated by TIP can help acquire situational overview, enable rapid information sharing and streamline the response.

Hazards caused by chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear substances, potentially in combination with explosives, always require a multidisciplinary approach and often coordination of the response at the national level. Such complex hazardous situations require specialized equipment and training for detection, triage and decontamination. Since such expert capabilities can only be held available within limits, innovations for rapid hazard detection, information sharing and the integration of non-experts are very valuable. TIP supports the adaptation of technologies that can be deployed directly in contaminated areas through user-centered needs assessments with specially trained emergency responders.

Pandemics are a special case in disaster medicine, as their sudden onset requires immediate emergency measures on the one hand, while their long duration can put a strain on the entire healthcare system on the other. The sudden onset of a pandemic requires a comprehensive, cross-border approach. Pandemic managers have to use and analyze data from various sources and derive measures. They must ensure that hospitals and health facilities have the right equipment, sufficient staff and resources. TIP has evaluated a prototype IT system that can support planning, situation awareness and decision-making processes in pandemic management in the EU.

In the long term, pandemic managers must build public trust, communicate effectively and involve the public so that they actively contribute to pandemic response. Communication must be accurate, timely and clear. For this, TIP analyzed effective risk communication strategies and worked with experts and public health agencies to develop recommendations and to provided practical, adaptable communication materials to users in public health and civil protection.

TIP benefits from the exchange between civilian and military actors to explore how technical innovations, for example to learn how blood replacements from battlefield medicine can be applied in the civilian sector.