Mobile computing in mass casualty incidents (MCIs)

This paper illustrates the future role of mobile computing for the response in emergencies and mass casualty incidents (MCIs). Furthermore it describes the different components and functionalities which will be needed-in the form of a vision. This vision shows that a mobile system is capable to assist emergency teams and incident commanders in MCI operations. This mobile system has to contain functionalities such as information on patients, information on the scene, information on emergency teams, information on infrastructure, MCI knowledge, technical support, management tools, remote collaboration and flexibility. Due to the fact that various researchers performed research on these challenges a wide-spread overview on the state of the art is presented. Finally this paper points out that a powerful user-interface which considers the unstable, time-critical and life-threatening context is indispensable for the successful introduction of mobile computing in emergencies and MCIs.