Disseminating multimedia protocols over Internet for emergency and catastrophe management

Over the last years we have developed various computing methods to assist specialized personnel on various aspects of catastrophe and emergency management. New models can address tasks such as patient triage; stabilization, resource coordination and hospital alertness and techniques based on information technologies. In this paper we present various tools (written on Java and C+2) that we created to store, represent, and disseminate practice guidelines and protocols over the World Wide Web. Guidelines and protocols are stored using a standard database program (e.g., Microsoft Access), and represented in a flowchart format linked to multimedia information such as text, pictures, sound, video or external sources of data. Using our JAVA tool, protocols can be disseminated over the Web and viewed with any browser with JAVA compliance. We have implemented 15 emergency protocols that we developed in collaboration with specialized military personnel from the Ministry of Defense, Spain. Users can access remotely those electronic protocols comparing their procedures and methods. Our goal is to enhance agreement and consensus among remote medical centers regarding emergency and catastrophe management, establishing discussions over the network. Our tools have also a potential for training medical and paramedical personnel for emergency situations.