Integration of volunteers and public: organisations and communication channels, possible functions, procedures

People affected by an extra-ordinary public health challenge (EOPHC), e.g. in situations of mass emergencies or disasters, cannot be reduced to the status of (passive) victims or to irrationally acting or panicking crowds. Even a well-prepared and coordinated Health Emergency Management System (HEMS) cannot control or anticipate the dynamics resulting from the decisions, actions and reactions, needs, demands and perceptions, as well as of the healthcare-seeking behaviour of people affected by an emergency.  In a mass emergency, uninjured, slightly injured, even some seriously injured survivors, their relatives present on-scene as well as bystanders or witnesses do not passively wait for (external) emergency assistance and the arrival of first responders. They take actions on site and move to hospitals nearby or even further away. This behaviour adds even more challenges to the health system and requires flexible adaptations in the health response.  Furthermore, events resulting in an EOPHC do not only have adverse effects on the health status of a community, but may - even temporarily - increase feelings and acts of solidarity and incite collaborative attitudes, contributing to disaster resilience. 

Use Cases, Benchmarking and validation framework of IMPRESS

IMPRESS platform has to be measured through a set of use case scenarios. They offer the opportunity for testing interoperability  between  the IMPRESS components, for filling the gap between business level (process models), technical level (workflows definition, web-services implementation) and user requirements,  and  for demonstration of a better communication between  several  different  organisations  that  seek  improved  interoperability. 

IMPRESS conducted an analysis of major threat scenarios and lessons learnt

The intention of the report is to identify and analyze major threat scenarios for infectious diseases, releases of hazardous material and major trauma events, where possible linking to real events with lessons learned. Such events might be considered “Events of Public Health Concern” (EoPHC) and the scenarios that exemplify them assist with the definition of the scope of the IMPRESS toolbox. The risks posed by these threats on a nation’s public health are explored.

IMPRESS Reference Semantic Model

IMPRESS has produced a technical report regarding the Reference Semantic Model as well as the Data Harmonization and Linked Data Provision process. This is is a living document that will be updated and improved during the progress of the IMPRESS Project and finally, delivered on March of 2016.

Common taxonomy and conceptual framework

As a first step for an "EU Common Response Framework for Health Services", IMPRESS has produced a report, proposing a general conceptual framework, which includes:

IMPRESS FP7 Project

There exists a huge variety in the occurrence and characteristics of major incidents. Incident management stakeholders and in particular emergency health service providers have to deal with two basic challenges: The disproportion between the  needs and the available human/material resources in the response capacity and the inherent time constraints of an emergency. These critical factors play a seminal role in the decision-making process during a crisis event, which affects all levels of command & control (strategic, operational, tactical). The drawback with current health emergency management systems lies with the command & control operations that should coordinate the actions of the separate services and turn them into an effective, multi-faceted crisis response mechanism.