Decision making in disaster management: considering the medicated society–a case study

ABSTRACT

The frequency of climate-related disasters is increasing along with their impacts. Disaster management involves a myriad of decisions that affect the common good in complex situations in which people may be in life-or-death situations. Prior planning assisted by technology support has become the de facto standard in addressing the needs of different constituency groups. Although traditionally underserved communities are particularly vulnerable to disasters, they are often overlooked in planning scenarios. This research focuses on one such group, the medicated society with chronic health conditions. To illustrate the risks and potential interventions for this subpopulation, we provide a case study of a scenario for a significant hurricane and flooding affecting a municipality in the United States. This coastal region is like coastal areas worldwide, where damages from winds and flooding lead to initial and sustained impacts. We provide recommendations for including this growing subpopulation in decision support for disaster management.

KEYWORDS:

• Disaster management
• emergency
• scenario analysis
• case study
• decision support
• medication
• chronically ill
• hurricane

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Theresa Jefferson

Theresa Jefferson is a faculty member in the Department of Information Systems, Law and Operations at Loyola University Maryland. She earned her D.Sc. in Engineering Management at The George Washington University. Research interests include decision support, disaster and risk management, business intelligence and analytics. Research projects, including the New Madrid Seismic Zone Catastrophic Planning Project and participation in the Netherlands-US Water Crisis Research Network, have focused in the areas of decision support and disaster and risk management. These research projects all have a multi-disciplinary focus.

Gloria Phillips-Wren

Gloria Phillips-Wren is Professor in the Information Systems, Law and Operations department at Loyola University Maryland. She is co-editor-in-chief of Intelligent Decision Technologies International Journal (IDT), previous past chair of the Special Interest Group on Decision Support and Analytics (SIGDSA), Secretary of IFIP WG8.3 Decision Support Systems (DSS), and leader of a focus group for Knowledge Engineering Systems (KES) Internationalin intelligent decision technologies. Her previous career in the federal government led to an interest in emerging technologies. Her research interests and publications are in decision making and support, analytics, business intelligence, healthcare IT, and strategic uses of technologies such as social media. She received a PhD from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and holds MS and MBA degrees. She has published over 35 journal articles and 13 books (including co-edited), and most recently has been investigating the impact of technology in a hospital setting toward improving patient care.