Hurricane Sandy

Genevieve Contey and David Miller gave a presentation Wednesday about their experience managing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s social media platforms during Hurricane Sandy. Read More »

The academic biomedical research community should improve its ability to mitigate and recover from the impacts of disasters, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The consequences of recent disasters, from hurricanes to cyberattacks, have shown that the investments of the U.S. federal government and other research sponsors -- which total about $27 billion annually -- are not uniformly secure. The report recommends 10 steps that academic research institutions, researchers, and research sponsors should take to bolster the resilience of academic biomedical research.

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While most of Washington D.C. is engulfed in fiscal cliff negotiations, Congressman Brian Higgins, a Democrat from western New York, is urging lawmakers to support wider use of electronic health records and is also touting his home region’s somewhat bustling health IT economy. Read More »

In the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, some who lost their homes or businesses have turned to crowd-funding websites to elicit a faster and more direct response than they could expect from the government or traditional charities. Read More »

People in several states in the Eastern United States are still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Sandy, and there are many kinds of disaster relief efforts going on...As evidenced in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, technology--including open source technology--can help organize disaster relief efforts and coordinate people. Here are just a few examples of tools that can make a difference. Read More »

Offering relevant information in open, machine-readable formats may be the most important thing government can do to keep the public informed during a natural disaster, Google and other technology leaders told members of Congress Tuesday. Read More »

With Florida still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Irma, a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services has issued draft guidance to help healthcare facilities with disaster planning and recovery for major hurricanes. Based on lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, Harvey and others, the document—from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response—provides an overview of the “potential significant public health and medical response and recovery needs facing hurricane- and severe storm-affected areas.” Among the topics in the draft are those covering health information management...

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