**2.4 Electronic medical data storage and handling**

A computerized hospital administration information system has capability to gather rapidly information, analyze it, and present it to medical team. It can also give pharmacist in charge data control over release of medical supplies and provide alerts regarding need to replenish developing shortages of critical items. The IDF designed and used in Haiti such an information system which included: identification and demographic information, photo album, admission notes and status, survey of injuries by body system, laboratory and imaging studies, surgical reports, diagnoses, and discharge summary [10]. The usage of such an electronic medical record in mega-disaster scenario ensures medical accuracy, and lowers risk of losing information in chaotic environment when patients are transferred between FFHs from different countries, or when delegation returns back to home country and give control over FFH facility to local healthcare authorities as occurred in most missions. For instance, in Haiti, bar-code readers were used to facilitate patient's registration upon entry to a specific department within FFH and to minimize manual data entry errors. The database of passport-like photographs was useful for family members to locate their relatives and it was suggested for future designing customized radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in order to track patients in disaster area [11]. Such technologies are developed in Israel as part of a national system for disseminating information on victims during mass casualty events [12].
