Page 22 - Smart public health emergency management and ICT implementations - A U4SSC deliverable on city platforms

models are fed with data from several official sources, sensors and biosensors in an attempt to
recognize threats as early as possible, while risk estimation processes are performed to minimize
the exposure of communities to known threat factors.
2. Operational step – after registration of the event: This consists of initiatives that are launched after
the appearance of a crisis. An effective surveillance system – consisting of laboratories connected
with national and international centres – is used to ensure early detection of an epidemic and
to continually monitor the progress of the crisis, potentially with the use of epidemic curves,
which are produced and fed with clinical data . The identification of the most vulnerable social
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groups, the application of the accurate clinical response and the application of measures to
minimize and control the outbreak of the pandemic are also essential aspects considered within
this step.

3. Concluding step – elimination of the consequences: Human deaths and pain are typical results of
a pandemic, but social and economic damages are also a by-product and have to be overcome.
This step consists of initiatives that try to strengthen social coherence and economically support
the communities.

The absence of a commonly agreed upon framework for managing public health emergencies can
be justified by the fact that it is only recently that corresponding standardization processes have
been initiated by international standardization bodies 59,60 .

Additionally, the response to a pandemic has similarities with a crisis management/emergency
framework as the one presented in Figure 1. Such an emergency management framework considers
the pre-event and the post-event phases of a crisis. Before the event, preparedness planning
engages the social, natural and physical systems and initiates the response processes. In the case of
an outbreak, there is a mitigation step to comprehend the impact and release short-term treatment
and relief activities. There are measures for longer-term community relief to be considered, better
known as adaptive resilience. These are measures that the community (i) adopts to improve its local
characteristics, and (ii) learns and adapts to the changes that were caused by the disaster.

Figure 3� Disaster resilience of place model 61

12 U4SSC: Smart public health emergency management and ICT implementations