Health Information for Disaster Preparedness in Central America

Central American Network for Disaster Health Information

Presentation to:

World Bank

October 2008

By: John C. Scott

Center for Public Service Communications

Project Origins

Hurricane Mitch - 1998

El Salvador Earthquakes 2001

Currently throughout Central America

Managing Disasters isis

Managing Information

Reliable information is the

most valued commodity

before and after a disaster.

NLM/PAHO Special Project

Unique opportunity for collaboration between NLM, as the world’s largest medical library and PAHO whose mission is improving the health of the people of the Americas

Implementation Partners: the Regional Disaster Information Center for Latin America and the Caribbean CRID) and Center for Public Service Communications (CPSC)

Disaster Information Management

Wealth of information but little is accessible Information about lessons learned is valuable throughout the region, but little in writing and often not circulated.

Grey Literature Disaster health information is perishable: it’s not peer-reviewed; frequently unpublished and not widely available

Internet Access Internet access has been limited, but this is changing. Info access has gone from weeks/months to minutes and from hard copy to searchable electronic files

Project Objectives

Training of health science librarians

Improving technology infrastructure

Development of Information Products

Technology Infrastructure

Computer Equipment Installation Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama

Each site received a server, router, UPS, switch, laser printer, scanner, and minimum two PCs

Internet Connectivity

Information Products

Digital Library 3,800 documents digitized and available through the CRID web site

Links from DESASTRES database to documents

Documents also available from local disaster information centers

CDs: Top 100 documents

special topics

Information Products (continued)

Document accessibility Develop full-text searching capability of documents

Web site development by participating sites

Health resources

Disaster resources

Local resources

Other Activities

Disaster Health Information Center Toolkit

Expansion of Network

Funding from UK to add Guatemala

Possible Caribbean, South America expansion

Increased attention to related issues: environmental health/toxicology

Promotion and Evaluation

Information Product Development

Information Technology Support