1 Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Cincinnati , Cincinnati, Ohio.
2 Department of Surgery, Westchester Medical Center, New York Medical College , Valhalla, New York.
Telemed J E Health. 2018 Sep;24(9):657-668. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2017.0237. Epub 2018 Jan 3.
Disasters, whether natural or manmade, are unpredictable. While there may be some forewarning as in natural disasters like a hurricane, response is often suboptimal. There is a need for an integrated and structured action for all three well defined phases of disaster management (pre-, during, and postdisaster) that must be addressed to ameliorate the impact on life and the necessary steps for recovery. Over the past several decades, telemedicine has been integrated in some form of disaster response. This adoption and integration has been shown to be effective. Since 2013, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), under the auspices of the Science for Peace and Security Programme, has worked on developing a Multinational Telemedicine System (MnTS) for disaster response.
A group of subject matter experts from Europe and the United States developed the MnTS by establishing the network and a concept of operations, to be used in disaster management between countries.
An integrated system, including personnel, hardware, communication protocols, portable power generation, medical kits, and Web-based tools, was developed and successfully tested in the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre's Exercises Ukraine 2015. The field exercise tested and validated the MnTS and identified areas of improvement. The system and its evaluation provide additional information for establishing deployment capabilities.
A MnTS approach to telemedicine in disaster response and management is possible and should be further advanced.
无论是自然还是人为灾害，都是不可预测的。虽然在自然灾害（如飓风）中可能会有一些预警，但反应往往并不理想。需要针对灾害管理的三个明确阶段（灾前、灾中和灾后）采取综合和结构化的行动，以减轻对生命的影响，并采取必要的恢复步骤。在过去的几十年中，远程医疗已经以某种形式被纳入了灾害应对中。这种采用和整合已经被证明是有效的。自 2013 年以来，北大西洋公约组织（北约）在和平与安全科学计划的主持下，一直在努力开发用于灾害应对的多国远程医疗系统（MnTS）。
来自欧洲和美国的一组专题专家通过建立网络和操作概念来开发 MnTS，以便在国家之间的灾害管理中使用。
一个集成系统，包括人员、硬件、通信协议、便携式发电、医疗工具包和基于 Web 的工具，已经开发出来，并在 2015 年的欧洲大西洋灾害应对协调中心演习乌克兰中成功测试。现场演习测试并验证了 MnTS，并确定了改进的领域。该系统及其评估为建立部署能力提供了更多信息。
在灾害应对和管理中采用 MnTS 方法进行远程医疗是可行的，应该进一步推进。
