The role of biomedical engineering in disaster management in resource-limited settings

The costs of natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floods, and of wars and other man-made catastrophes go beyond the immediate loss of life, property, infrastructure and livelihood. The public health crisis that unfolds over ensuing weeks and months leaves much deeper, permanent scars in the form of reduced quality of life and disrupted national economies.1 These effects are compounded in resource-limited settings, where catastrophes result in population displacement and undermine health facilities’ capacity to provide care, since fully-established disaster management programmes are often lacking.2 Large-scale disasters that displace populations and strain the existing health-care infrastructure, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, have two well-defined stages: the crisis during the event, and the slower, more devastating catastrophe that puts the lives of millions of people at risk. Local government response is often focused on the former, with little attention to the latter. Crisis management in remote settings is particularly complicated. In this perspective piece we argue in favour of improved management of large-scale disasters through investment in biomedical engineering.