Disaster Response System

Abstract

Health care data and other information about a person is stored in memory accessible to a server. The server allows users to access the health care data and information, such as across a communication network. In some embodiments a biometric identifier for a person is stored with the information. The biometric identifier can be used to control access to a person's records and to quickly locate information associated with a particular person during a disaster.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of identifying an individual during a mass casualty situation, comprising:
 acquiring a first biometric identifier of the individual involved in the mass casualty situation;   erecting a temporary communications infrastructure tower for providing wireless communication capability;   searching a database in response to a request sent through the temporary communications infrastructure to the database to identify a second biometric identifier as a match to the first biometric identifier; the second biometric identifier being associated with the individual and stored in the database together with information pertaining to the individual; and   receiving at least some of the information pertaining to the individual associated with the second biometric identifier from the database via the temporary communications infrastructure.   
     
     
         2 . A method of locating a user that is a person missing during a mass casualty situation, comprising:
 during a preparation period   registering the user by receiving user data including a first biometric identifier;   storing the user data and the first biometric identifier in a database and associating the first biometric identifier with the user data in the database;   during the mass casualty situation   acquiring a second biometric identifier of the user in response to an indication that the user is a victim of the mass casualty situation wherein the user is missing during the mass casualty situation;   searching the database to identify the user by matching the second biometric identifier of the user with the first biometric identifier of the user stored in the database;   updating the database with a location of the user, wherein the location of the user is identified as being at a shelter;   receiving a request of the user based on the user being the person missing;   searching the database, in response to the request of the user, for the   location of the user corresponding to the person missing; and transmitting the location of the user in response to the request, wherein   the location is identified as being at the shelter.   
     
     
         3 . A method of responding to a mass casualty situation, comprising:
 establishing a communication central in response to a disaster for coordinating work between a plurality of emergency response functions;   connecting the communication central to a server device through a temporary communications infrastructure tower for providing wireless communication capability, the server device including a processor and memory, the memory including a database comprising information pertaining to an individual and a biometric identifier of the individual associated with the information; and   identifying the individual in response to an indication that the individual is a victim of the mass casualty situation by acquiring a second biometric identifier of the individual and searching the database for a match between the second biometric identifier of the individual and the biometric identifier included in the database.   
     
     
         4 . The method of identifying an individual of  claim 1 , wherein the temporary communications infrastructure tower communicates wirelessly with the database. 
     
     
         5 . The method of identifying an individual of  claim 1 , wherein the temporary communications infrastructure tower is erected in response to the mass casualty situation. 
     
     
         6 . The method of locating a person missing of  claim 2 , wherein registering the user is part of a large scale registration event. 
     
     
         7 . The method of locating a person missing of  claim 2 , wherein the transmitting step includes:
 transmitting from a server including the database the location of the user in response to the request.   
     
     
         8 . The method of locating a person missing of  claim 2 , wherein registering the user occurs in response to the mass casualty situation. 
     
     
         9 . The method of locating a person missing of  claim 8 , wherein registering the user occurs at a location local to the mass casualty situation. 
     
     
         10 . The method of responding to a mass casualty situation of  claim 3 , wherein the temporary communications infrastructure tower communicates wirelessly with the database. 
     
     
         11 . The method of responding to a mass casualty situation of  claim 3 , wherein the temporary communications infrastructure tower is erected in response to the mass casualty situation. 
     
     
         12 . The method of responding to a mass casualty situation of  claim 3 , wherein the temporary communications infrastructure tower communicates with the server device using a customized protocol. 
     
     
         13 . The method of responding to a mass casualty situation of  claim 12 , wherein the customized protocol communicates through at least one of an administrative system interface, a user system interface, and/or a disaster response system interface based on access rights granted to a user for communicating through the communication central. 
     
     
         14 . The method of responding to a mass casualty situation of  claim 3 , wherein a mobile computing device acquires the second biometric identifier of the individual. 
     
     
         15 . The method of responding to a mass casualty situation of  claim 3 , wherein a mobile computing device includes a second database comprising at least some of the information pertaining to the individual. 
     
     
         16 . The method of responding to a mass casualty situation of  claim 3 , wherein a mobile computing device includes a second database comprising the biometric identifier of the individual. 
     
     
         17 . The method of responding to a mass casualty situation of  claim 3 , further including:
 providing the information pertaining to the individual to an emergency responder in response to a match between the second biometric identifier of the individual and the biometric identifier included in the database.   
     
     
         18 . The method of identifying an individual of  claim 1 , wherein the method further includes:
 establishing a treatment sector including triage tents for emergency care to be provided to the individual; and   establishing a temporary shelter for the individual, wherein the individual has been displaced by the mass casualty situation.   
     
     
         19 . The method of responding to a mass casualty situation of  claim 3 , wherein the method further includes:
 establishing a treatment sector including triage tents for emergency care to be provided to the individual; and   establishing a temporary shelter for the individual, wherein the individual has been displaced by the mass casualty situation.