System Relationship: Event, Respons & Consequence

Events that are causing an emergency differ in terms of for example frequency (how often they occur), location (where they occur), severity (impact of injuries and loss of values) and how the injury occurs. How the injury arises can be static for example, car accidents or broken bones, or dynamically, when the consequences exacerbates by a prolonged response time. The most common example of a dynamic event is a fire.

These differences lead to different types of response for various events. The difference in response can, for instance be, response time (how fast resources are in place), number and type of resource or expertise and equipment (capacity) of the various resources. In order to make evidence-based decisions about which resources to respond to a given event, and how fast they should be in at the scene, the system requires a connection between the event, the response and consequence. Today, there is a big lack of knowledge of these systems connections, especially within the emergency area. The pre-hospital care has knowledge of certain events, such as cardiac arrest, where the relationship between response time, effort and chance of survival is well illuminated.

The reasons for the lack of knowledge may be that investigations that been carried out do not contribute to a systematic learning, in the absence of a coherent framework for analysis and conclusion drawing, and spreading of evidence. There is also no general model for how risk and vulnerability assessment should be conducted, but the models that are being developed can only be applied in limited conditions, which further complicates the comparison. One complication is the difficulty of assessing the ability of a specific resource and a specific response. Persons who participate in an operation differ in education, experience, interest and physical ability, which mean that the knowledge and skills of people varies. Furthermore, these people can also have access to vehicles and equipment of various kinds.
Given that accidents and related events are not homogenous, people's response and ability vary and the composition of a resource may be varied and it is obvious that the current relationship is elusive. This focus area aims to identify, investigate and model the relationships between system events, response and consequence. Some recent research tasks are:

• Regarding to geographic and time identify relevant events
• To investigate which resources are sent at given events in the past and the impact of this
• To examine how variation in knowledge and skills of different individuals affect response capabilities, and examine the source of this variation
• To investigate how the overall ability of a response can be evaluated, especially when the response times for the participating resources vary
• To create an common model for the authority for risk and vulnerability assessment
• To develop measurable criteria for comparison of response and rescue efforts
• To develop an integrated framework for evidence-based response effort

Page responsible: kayvan.y.mojir@liu.se
Last updated: Mon May 17 22:38:56 CEST 2010