抄録
In large earthquakes such as the Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995 and the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, some victims did not survive due to delays in transferring them to appropriate hospitals. These unfortunate results occurred mainly because rescue teams (ambulance drivers) did not receive correct information regarding to which hospitals the victims should be sent. Moreover, in pharmacies in the affected area, patients who had been taking medicines faced the problem of obtaining medicines that they could have received in another pharmacy in/near the affected area. If pharmacists had obtained information that certain medicines were available at other pharmacies/hospitals, pharmacists could have directed patients to such pharmacies/hospitals. Also, pharmacists could have purchased medicines they needed from other pharmacies/hospitals. Therefore, organizing a network to relay information on the available items in hospitals and pharmacies is important. In this article, we propose a system by which information is relayed from a hospital/pharmacy to disaster control (city halls, fire stations, etc) by ham radio operators near the hospital/pharmacy. Ham radio operators are amateur operators of licensed personal radio stations. The measures we propose here are relatively inexpensive and easy to perform. Furthermore, this system can increase the number of survivors following natural disasters. In addition, the system would help patients and hospitals/pharmacies in many ways. Appreciation and establishment of this system should be conducted as early as possible because a large earthquake is expected to occur in the not too distant future.
