title: The usefulness of information and communication technologies in crisis response.
abstract: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a vital role in coordinating crisis response between pre-hospital services and emergency departments of hospitals. In spite of the advances in these technologies, there remain a variety of challenges to their usage during a crisis. To identify these challenges, we conducted focus group interviews with emergency department (ED) and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel. We found that ED and EMS personnel have widely varying perceptions about the usefulness and ease-of-use of information tools and communication tools used in crisis management. We discuss the importance of bringing together communication and information tools into integrated networks of ICTs for effective crisis response. We also highlight design features of ICTs which can support seamless and effective communication and coordination between ED and EMS teams.
authors.affiliation: College of Information Sciences and technology, Penn State University, UP, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Sharoda A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Paul
authors.forename: Madhu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Abraham
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: DeFlitch
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Deflitch
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003142:Communication; D004631:Emergency Medical Service Communication Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004634:Emergency Medical Technicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010414:Pennsylvania