Overview – Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC)
Aim: To provide access to quality disaster health information to the nation at all stages of preparation, response, mitigation and recovery.The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has a long history of providing health information during times of disaster. Recognizing the potential for the use of libraries as major untapped resources during disasters, and responding to the current increased need for disaster health information, the Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC) has been created to aid the nation’s disaster management efforts. DIMRC is tasked with the effective collection, organization, and dissemination of health information for natural, accidental, or deliberate disasters.
DIMRC is committed to providing this essential information as part of the Federal effort to help prepare, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the adverse health effects of disasters in conjunction with Federal, State, local government, private organizations, and local communities. To accomplish this, DIMRC will focus its efforts on providing disaster health information resources and informatics research that will be directly beneficial for public health officials, healthcare providers, special populations, and the public. Some of the initiatives to achieve this include:
- The creation of a database of published and gray literature of disaster-related materials
- Web 2.0 applications for education and training
- Syndromic and other surveillance research
- The creation of Emergency Information Centers (EICs) within the NLM and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), a network of over 6,000 medical libraries nationwide, to work in conjunction with Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs)
- Research and development of communications interoperability technologies to enhance and support continuity of operations (COOP) programs