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A comparative study of interagency
communications and information
exchange in disaster response among
selected countries
Website:
www.jehp.net Fayegh Abdolahzadeh, Hossein Bagherian1, Mahmoudreza Peyravi2,
DOI:
Pirhossein Kolivand3, Nahid Tavakoli4
10.4103/jehp.jehp_92_23

Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Effective communications and secure information exchange platforms during
disasters and emergencies are among the significant factors in inclusive disaster management and
PhD Student, Health can radically contribute to better preparedness, efficient and timely responsiveness, and, finally,
in Disasters and maximal reduction of damages and fatalities. The present study was to compare communications
Emergencies, Faculty and information exchange among disaster response organizations in selected countries.
of Medical Information MATERIALS AND METHOD: This applied research, carried out in 2022, was a qualitative
Sciences and descriptive‑comparative study pursuing a content analysis approach. Australia, Turkey, India, America,
Management, Isfahan Japan, and Iran constituted the statistical population of the study. The sampling was based on the
University of Medical countries’ disaster histories and response experiences. The note‑taking tool was used to extract and
Sciences, Isfahan, Iran, collect data during the review of texts, documents, and articles, and the qualitative content analysis
1
Health Information method was employed for data analysis.
Technology Research
RESULTS: The outcomes of the descriptive‑comparative analysis fell into four main comparative axes
Center, Isfahan University
of the selected countries, including comparing reference, authority, and coordinator organizations
of Medical Sciences,
in the response phase, comparing planning records and histories in disaster and emergency
Isfahan, Iran, 2Department
management comparing the contribution or non‑contribution of government, military institutions,
of Health in Disasters
and non‑governmental organizations to disaster and emergency management, the commonalities
and Emergencies, School
of the selected countries’ disaster and emergency management and dependence on government.
of Management and
Medical Informatics, CONCLUSION: The results revealed that all selected countries depended on the government in
Shiraz University of managing disasters and emergencies, and the four communication platforms, i.e., landline telephone,
Medical Sciences, mobile phone, radio communications systems, and couriers, were the common communication and
Shiraz, Iran, 3Department information acquisition sources.
of Health Economics, Keywords:
Medical School, Shahed Communications, comparative study, information exchange, response organizations, selected
University, Tehran, Iran, countries
4
Health Management and
Economics, Research
Center, Isfahan University
of Medical Sciences, Introduction for the fast access to resources, elimination
Isfahan, Iran of time‑consuming bureaucracy, attainment

Address for
correspondence:
R eal‑time information and principled
communications play significant roles
in the higher preparedness and proper
of a joint language, and management of time
toward the maximal reduction of damages
and fatalities.[1]
Nahid Tavakoli,
Assistant Professor,
responsiveness of health organizations and
Health Information are efficient in intersectoral communication In the different phases of the disaster
Technology Research and information exchange during disasters management cycle and all pre‑disaster,
Center, Isfahan University disaster, and post‑disaster phases,
of Medical Sciences,
This is an open access journal, and articles are
Isfahan, Iran. distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
E‑mail: tavakoli@mng. Attribution‑NonCommercial‑ShareAlike 4.0 License, which How to cite this article: Abdolahzadeh F,
mui.ac.ir allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work Bagherian H, Peyravi M, Kolivand P, Tavakoli N. A
non‑commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and comparative study of interagency communications
Received: 19‑01‑2023 and information exchange in disaster response among
the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
Accepted: 07‑02‑2023 selected countries. J Edu Health Promot 2023;12:251.
Published: 29-07-2023 For reprints contact: [email protected]

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Abdolahzadeh, et al.: Comparative study of interagency communication

Table 1: Comparing reference, authority, and coordinator organizations of response phase in selected countries
Row Country Reference response institution Accountable institution Response‑coordinating institution
1 America Presidency U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
2 Japan Prime minister and cabinet office Ministry of Crises Management Central Council of Crisis Management
3 Australia Prime minister and cabinet office Emergency Management Australian Council for International Development
Australia (EMA)
4 Turkey Prime minister Central Government Turkey General Office of Emergency Management
5 Iran Presidency Ministry of Interior Crisis Management Organization
6 India Prime minister and cabinet Ministry of Interior National Emergency Management Agency

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) coordinating the on‑time and efficient distribution
can efficiently contribute to higher preparedness and of information among stakeholders, organizing
fast responsiveness.[2] In the response phase, one of the information exchange among national and international
most influential phases of the disaster management cycle, disaster response organizations, collecting, organizing,
the operating personnel are called to the Emergency and protecting relevant pieces of information, and
Operation Center (EOC) and act based on their particular promoting, facilitating, and producing communicational
job specifications within an Incident Command System sources for the response activities of the health sector
(ICS).[3] is among the main responsibilities tied to information
and communication management during disasters and
The communication and coordination between the health emergencies. Information management can be efficiently
system and response organizations, e.g., emergency applied in disasters and emergencies when there is
medical services, red crescent, fire department, police, the necessary coordination among all participating
and hospital, are very important, and up‑to‑date organizations in responding to disasters.[8]
information is the precedent of this coordination.
During the occurrence of a disaster, these organizations Intersectoral cooperation means communications and
should not only play efficient roles separately but also interactions among different sectors aiming to reach
step into a trajectory harmoniously. Thus, healthcare desirable outcomes. Likewise, intersectoral cooperation
organizations need both intra‑organizational and can be recognized as a main approach to correct and
inter‑organizational coordination with the mentioned inclusive disaster management. Intersectoral cooperation
organizations. In this respect, it is imperative to use as a necessity is not a novel and unfamiliar topic but
correct and real‑time information and exchange welcomed by many countries in past decades. In the
intra‑organizationally (in top‑down and bottom‑up 1970s, Alma Ata Declaration emphasized healthcare
ways) and inter‑organizationally (between the for all until 2000, and in the 1980s, the Ottawa
mentioned organizations) in real‑time is extensively Charter introduced health promotion strategies, both
imperative. The lack of uniformity in the collection of of which were among the significant strategies of
healthcare‑related data and relevant information during intersectoral cooperation.[9] In Iran, the new law of the
disasters leads to poor quality of provided services country’s disaster management and establishment of the
at national and international levels.[4] Coordinating supreme council of disaster management, prevention
intersectoral information of the health system with organizations, and headquarters, and coordinating and
response organizations regarding their engagement commanding crisis response operations indicate the need
in optimal and timely service provision activities for intersectoral cooperation in the disaster and incident
decrease fatalities, increases the number of the rescued, management domain.[10]
diminishes the complications of disabilities, relieves
mental and physical pains, and plays a vital role in In Iran, researchers have identified the disintegration of
disaster management.[5] Therefore, it is indispensable information, lack of shared inter‑organizational databases,
to determine the health system performance criteria lack of vivid informational strategies, and lack of a
for establishing communications and exchanging formal system documenting the disaster data at local and
information with the above organizations in order to provincial levels as the primary difficulties in building
facilitate secure, reliable, and effective exchange and efficient communications in the information emergency
processing of information in response to disasters.[6] system. Thus, despite the presence of numerous
Several studies reveal that there is no standard system healthcare‑providing systems, it is imperative to develop
in Iran for presenting real reports and statistics during an effective information and communication network to
the incidence of disasters and emergencies. Furthermore, improve intersectoral and multisectoral coordination in
organizing intersectoral communications and exchanging emergency management.[11] Iranian studies revealed that
information have been the challenges of past disasters intersectoral communications and information exchange
and emergencies. [7] Preparing situational reports, that fall into the response phase functions category in
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Abdolahzadeh, et al.: Comparative study of interagency communication

the roadmap of disaster management and risk reduction including 1) comparing reference, authority, and
in the health system have been among the challenges of coordinator organizations in the response phase [Table 1],
past disasters.[12] On the other hand, the ICT mechanism 2) comparing planning records and histories in disaster
in the country still needs basic actions and fundamentals and emergency management [Table 2], 3) comparing the
that can considerably contribute to on‑time and efficient contribution or non‑contribution of government, military
responses to disasters using a shared language, a joint institutions, and non‑governmental organizations to
communication line and platform, a single telephone and disaster and emergency management [Table 3], and 4)
command, and real‑timed and reliable information.[13] the commonalities of the selected countries’ disaster
In addition, the researcher’s experience in international and emergency management and dependence on
incidents and his presence in various disaster‑experiencing government [Table 4].
countries indicate that disintegration among response
organizations during incidents and disasters, especially The analysis of the data revealed that all selected
in the response phase, parallelism, and line agents’ countries depended on the government in managing
unawareness of the notified guidelines and rules in the disasters and emergencies. Disasters and emergencies
disaster and emergency management domain are among are managed in America under the supervision of the
the gross challenges ahead of the respective authorities. U.S. Department of Homeland Security via the Federal
Thus, this study aimed to compare communications Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in Japan
and information exchange among disaster response under the supervision of the Central Council of the
organizations in selected countries. Ministry of Interior, in Australia under the supervision
of the Emergency Management Australia (EMA),
Materials and Methods in Turkey under the supervision of Disaster and
Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD), in Iran
Design and statistical population under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior with the
The present applied research, carried out in 2022, was secretaryship of the Disaster Management Organization,
a qualitative descriptive‑comparative study pursuing and in India under the supervision of state government of
a content analysis approach. Australia, Turkey, India, this country. In terms of the planning history and record,
America, Japan, and Iran constituted the statistical America and India had the longest since 1803 (219 years),
population of the study. The sampling was based on the and India had the shortest history since 1960 (62 years).
countries’ disaster histories and response experiences.
The governance structures of disaster and emergency
Data collection management were centralized in Iran and Turkey,
A data‑extraction form was designed for data collection while other countries possessed federal (national),
through note‑taking. The form included several state (provincial), regional, urban, local, and tribal
general questions on the conditions of communications structures. Table 2 shows the governance structure of
and information exchange in the selected countries. every country separately.
Introducing response organizations, the coordination
of communications in the national response to disasters Concerning the communicational tool employed at
and emergencies, the roles and responsibilities of the response times for communication and the information
respective organizations, coordinating mechanisms, acquisition resources, the four tools below were similarly
communicational tools, and information exchange used in all selected countries: landline phones, mobile
platforms were instances of these questions. phones, wireless radio communications systems, and
couriers. The widely‑applied data exchanged among
To collect data, the researcher acquired the permission organizations and recorded in the designed form as the
of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and attended data source are described below separately for every
its library to use the internet, databases, and available country:
documents, take notes in the designed form and record
and extract the needed data. America: The type and title of the disaster, the statistics
of the injured population, the surviving population, and
Data analysis the dead, the geographical location of the destroyed
Qualitative analysis with a descriptive‑comparative region in the form of geographical coordinates, the
approach was employed using comparative tables. residence‑required space, the consequences of the
disaster, diseases, departed agents and teams organized
Results based on various skills and specializations, individual and
collective pieces of equipment, active and undestroyed
The outcomes of the descriptive‑comparative analysis fell care centers, field hospitals, communications, and their
into four main comparative axes of the selected countries, types, the logistic and support of support organizations,
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Abdolahzadeh, et al.: Comparative study of interagency communication

Table 2: Comparing planning level and history of response to disasters and emergencies in selected countries
Row Country Response planning history Planning levels
1 America 1803 Federal, provincial, local
2 Japan 1880 Central, provincial, urban, local, or residents
3 Australia 1929 Federal or national, provincial or territorial, regional or local
4 Turkey 1943 Central
5 Iran 1959 Central
6 India 1960 Central, provincial, regional

Table 3: Comparing significant or insignificant accessible capacities and facilities, provided services,
roles of government, military institutions, and reports on the actions, the role of the injured households,
non‑governmental organizations in disaster and required vehicles, identities of information providers,
emergency management in selected countries
depot inventories and biological, hygienic, and edible
Row Country Government Military Significant
relieves, healthcare consequences, the present population
institutions non‑governmental
organizations and potentials in the region, reports on the injured, health
1 America √ √ ‑ requirements, and descriptions of the activities
2 Japan √ ‑ ‑
3 Australia √ ‑ ‑ India: Reports on the type of the disaster, rate of mortality,
4 Turkey √ ‑ √ degree of injuries, economic effects, locational and
5 Iran √ √ √ environmental destructions, central aid prerequisites,
6 India √ ‑ √ resources accessed by the federal government, and the
rescue and relief operations’ scale.
needed medical and pharmaceutical items, and the
available and required facilities
Discussion
Information and communications management is a
Japan: The type and location of the disaster, access
component of planning strategies in disaster management.
ways, stating communication codes and the way for
In this domain, the specialized competence and training of
establishing secure communications, initial, secondary,
response teams are necessary during disasters. However, the
and final reports on the incident, e.g., the incident
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) distinguishes
data and type, rate of fatalities, the degree of injuries,
information management from communications
care‑needed location, response‑required human
resources, and the requisite space for residence management. Information management deals with four
disaster‑related domains: 1) compiling situational reports
Australia: The healthcare domain of individuals, mental and scientific documents for preparedness, 2) coordinating
and physical health of individuals, nutrition, general the on‑time and efficient distribution of information, 3)
and environmental hygiene, malnutrition, shelters, collecting and organizing information exchange with
drinking water, diseases, damages to communicational health systems at national and international levels, and
infrastructures, the number of available and required 4) organizing and presenting reports and other scientific
shelters, the number of present and needed personnel and technical information on disasters. Communications
beds, the number of available and required hospital beds, management deals with seven domains: 1) assisting
the statistics of the injured and fatalities, endangered with health‑sector information and communications
medical facilities, health capacity, blocked roads, management planning, 2) promoting, facilitating, and
security, the present and required logistics producing communication sources for the response‑related
activities of the health sector, 3) providing necessary advice
Turkey: The topographical data, the destroyed region, in media communications management, 4) counseling with
the degree of financial loss, fatalities, the incident intermediate teams in the Ministry of Health, 5) assisting
location, access ways, available and required facilities with managing media communications and distributing
for effective responses key messages, and 6) monitoring media coverage besides
facilitating and promoting activities that highlight the
Iran: The type of the disaster, the level, and severity of the contribution of the health system.[14]
incident, the location of the incident, the extent of the regional
damage, the likely influenced population, the statistics of Before developing and presenting any model on
the injured, the gender and age of the injured, the statistics communications and information exchange management,
of the dead, population needs, needed forces, operational we should consider ten fundamental principles. The first is
and relief vehicles, individual and collective pieces of accessibility. Philanthropic information should be accessed
equipment, access ways, medical emergency needs, by those who are active in relief and altruistic aid. In other
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Abdolahzadeh, et al.: Comparative study of interagency communication

Table 4: Commonalities of selected countries in disaster and emergency management

Shared communication Shared data elements Intra‑organizational Inter‑organizational
tools and platforms communications communications
Commonalities of ‑Mobile phones ‑Incident type Type of communications: Type of communication:
selected countries in ‑Landline phones ‑Incident level and severity ‑Bilateral ‑Unilateral and bilateral
disaster and emergency ‑Wireless radio systems ‑Extent of financial losses ‑Vertical (top‑down) ‑Horizontal and level
management communications
‑Courier ‑Statistics of the injured ‑Vertical (bottom‑up)
‑Video conference ‑Statistics of fatalities
‑Available capacities
‑Needs

words, it should be compiled in a simple and comprehensible emergency response communications, contribution and
format to be used in disasters and translated into the local responsibilities of respective organizations, coordination
language, depending on the influenced region. Besides, mechanisms, communication tools, and information
accessibility means the ability to utilize information resources exchange platforms in public, private, and non‑governmental
from various online and offline channels and media. The organizations. In this regard, it should formulate ideas and
second principle is inclusiveness. Information exchange and approaches commensurate with likely future evolutions and
management should be based on cooperation, participation, various crisis conditions.[19]
and information sharing. In this regard, all stakeholders,
especially the representatives of injured communities in Anne Qureshi and Rudolf Lushner [20] introduced
disasters, should reach agreements before disasters. The third interoperations with disaster response organizations,
principle is interoperability. All shared information should including organizing, facilitating, and supply chain
be easily retrieved, and all response organizations should member organizations, as the main role of the
access it. The fourth principle is accountability, which refers government. In a study entitled A Comparative
to the ability to assess information based on known resources Study of Crisis Management Information Systems,
reliably and validly. Information providers are accountable Rafi et al. [21] (2018) investigated inquiries in the
for the content they provide to their partners and stakeholders. literature on designing automatic Disaster Management
The fifth principle is verifiability. Information should be Information Systems (DMISs) to identify similarities
accurate, non‑contradictory, and based on convincing in design assumptions, conceptual designing, and
methodologies besides being confirmed by other external design considerations. Their results showed that the
resources (extra‑organizational authorities). Relevance is the research on DMISs considerably increased in different
sixth principle arguing that information should be applied, countries of the world since 2004. Furthermore, the
flexible, responsive, and based on decision and operation base data and present resources were needed in many
needs in all disaster phases. The seventh principle addresses of the presented studies since they were important
objectivity. Communications and information managers in efficiently responding to a disaster. The proposed
should utilize various information sources for data collection communication infrastructures include Local Area
in order to enjoy a thorough and inclusive insight for directing Networks (LAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN), and
problems and providing necessary recommendations. The satellite communications for better coordination among
eighth principle is about humanity. Information should various response and relief organizations in different
never be used for deviating from or harming influenced or locations. Connection to these networks is enabled
at‑risk populations, and the prestige of the injured should through the internet, Wi‑Fi, Closed General Radio
be respected. The ninth principle is the timeliness of the Services, or satellites. Although the research on DMISs
information. Philanthropic information should be collected, has been extended over the past decade, it is still in its
analyzed, and disseminated efficiently and be always up infancy. This paper provides valuable information on
to date. Sustainability is discussed in the tenth principle. the differences among suggested DMISs that can help
Information should be kept, indexed, and archived to identify gaps for future progresses in enhancing the
be used in the future for preparedness and exploitation efficiency of DMISs. Future opportunities were also
of teachings.[15,16] In the meantime, building pre‑disaster determined and discussed in this paper.
distrust, deficits in communications, and non‑alignment
in the emergency reactions of communications and In a qualitative study entitled empirical insights for
information exchange authorities intensify the difficulties of designing information and communication technology for
accountability for emergencies.[17,18] Before, during, and after international disaster response, Stute et al.[22] investigated
disasters, disaster management should put into its agenda disaster response systems and their approaches to
some actions concerning intra‑ and inter‑organizational information and communication technology separately
communications, information acquisition methods and at the international level. In the first phase of the study,
resources, coordination among national disaster and they analyzed documents, including policies, operational
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Abdolahzadeh, et al.: Comparative study of interagency communication

manuals, and strategies pertaining to disasters. Then, they of information and the lack of regional databases, vivid
interviewed disaster specialists in the second phase. In strategies, and formal incident information‑recording
this respect, they analyzed the way of applying the term systems at local and provincial levels were identified
disaster and its concept, different disaster classifications, as the primary problems in establishing efficient
various response organizations, and the contribution communications and emergency information systems in
of the United Nations. In this respect, 14 insights, Iran. Developing incident databases, formulating proper
including self‑sufficiency, the uniqueness of every standards and protocols, compiling information strategies,
disaster, communicational loops and ties, flexibility, training employees, and establishing a disaster and
local resources, simplicity, resilient communications, incident information center can help promote the current
scalability, centralization, timeliness, integration, communication and information systems of Iran.[1,12,25]
accuracy, regular coordination, known processes,
automatic reporting, and integrated Cyber‑Physical Limitations of the study
Systems (CPSs), were presented.[22] Investigating all selected countries’ documents and
reports was impossible due to some language and
In a quantitative‑qualitative study, Basset et al.[23] (2020) internet limitations.
evaluated a framework for disaster response systems in
insecure environments. In the first phase, they examined Suggestions for future studies
the differences among smart disaster response systems Future studies are suggested to investigate the
and their impacts on the quality of life of citizens. In the inter‑organizational coordination between the health
second phase, the evaluative criteria for smart disaster sector and other response organizations, such as the
response systems were extracted, and in the third phase, police, fire department, etc.
definitions and approaches to developing a framework
for smart systems were presented. In the fourth phase, Conclusion
the proposed frameworks were analyzed in detail, and,
lastly, an applied sample that measured the reliability The results of this study generally show that
of smart systems was presented. intra‑organizational communications in response
organizations were bilateral in all countries, and vertical
In a study entitled Analytical Tools for Complex Systems communications were both top‑down and bottom‑up.
and Simulations, Cui et al.[24] (2020) presented a dynamic Likewise, inter‑organizational communications among
model for disaster information dissemination. This study response organizations were both unilateral and bilateral,
measured individuals’ willingness to share information as well as horizontal, in the selected countries. Given the
with respect to their degree of intimacy which reflected reference, authority, and coordinating institutions in the
the extent of social distance. Then, the model was response phase, disaster and emergency management
presented based on individuals’ selection priority to share was governed by the presidency, U.S. Department of
information. The results of their extensive simulations Homeland Security, and Federal Emergency Management
showed that if individuals preferred to disseminate Agency (FEMA) in America, Prime minister and cabinet
information to those with short social distances, the office, Ministry of Crises Management, and Central Council
information dissemination process would be suppressed. of Crisis Management in Japan, Prime minister and cabinet
Accordingly, to facilitate the dispersion of information, it office, Emergency Management Australia (EMA), and
is useful to consider rewards for information distributors Australian Council for International Development in
in order to accelerate the dissemination process. In Australia, Prime minister, Central Government, and General
addition, this study examined the efficiency of the Office of Emergency Management in Turkey, Presidency,
government’s strategies in the distribution of information. Ministry of Interior, and Crisis Management Organization
in Iran, and Prime minister and cabinet, Ministry of Interior,
Seyedin et al. (2012) adopted a qualitative‑quantitative and National Emergency Management Agency in India.
approach to study the status of the disaster and emergency
information and communication Systems in Iran’s health All selected countries depended on the government to
sector. The statistical population consisted of Iranian health manage disasters and emergencies. Besides, the role of
managers at three national, provincial, and regional levels. military forces as a capacity in the response phase was
Simple randomized and purposeful sampling was used in bolder in Iran and America than in other countries.
the quantitative and qualitative phases, respectively. The The roles of voluntary forces and non‑governmental
findings revealed that the mean information‑sharing score organizations were bolder in Iran, Turkey, and
pertaining to disasters, recording internal and external India. Japan and Australia were the countries whose
risks, developing emergency management databases, governments had higher contributions than military
and establishing incident‑recording systems equaled forces and non‑governmental organizations or did not
3.06, 2.66, 2.61, and 2.87, respectively. The disintegration play any role.
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Abdolahzadeh, et al.: Comparative study of interagency communication

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