Information Challenges Associated with Accessing and Sharing of Patient Information in Disasters A Qualitative Analysis

The authors interviewed 21 physicians who noted three themes of information management challenges during disasters: lack of formal communications during patient handoffs, lack of access to patient medical history, and a dearth of system/population-level data. The authors note these challenges often fall on already overburdened healthcare staff, so novel integrated and systematic approaches are needed to improve real-time information sharing.