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

Zerina Lokmic-Tomkins (), Dinesh Bhandari, Chris Bain, Ann Borda, Timothy Charles Kariotis and David Reser
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Zerina Lokmic-Tomkins: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University, 35 Rainforest Walk, Clayton, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
Dinesh Bhandari: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University, 35 Rainforest Walk, Clayton, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
Chris Bain: Digital Health Theme, Department of Human-Centered Computing, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia
Ann Borda: Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
Timothy Charles Kariotis: School of Computing and Information System, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia
David Reser: Graduate Entry Medicine Program, Monash Rural Health-Churchill, Churchill, VIC 3842, Australia

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 5, 1-28

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: climate change; natural disaster; digital health technology; healthcare; citizen science; resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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