Author Profile

Shandiz Moslehi

Affiliation: Department of Disaster Public Health, School of public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Department of Disaster and Emergency Health, National Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Recent Posts

Characteristics of an Effective International Humanitarian Assistance: A Systematic Review

·

Introduction: The objective of this study is to identify the effectiveness characteristics, review the definition of them, and develop a conceptual mapping of existing domains in the field of International Humanitarian Assistance (IHA).

Methods: We conducted a systematic review and searched the major databases (Science Direct, Scopus, Springer and Pubmed) and grey literature, including references of potentially eligible articles and conference proceedings through March 2015. Articles were included if they focused on IHA effectiveness. Reviewers independently identified the eligible studies and extracted data.

Results: 10 studies were included and 48 characteristics were identified. There is a lack of scientific studies and agreement on the characteristics of IHA effectiveness. 

Conclusion: This study could be the step toward an understanding of IHA effectiveness characteristics and its definitions with the findings making a base line for more research in this area. 

Rapid Health Needs Assessment Experience in 11 August 2012 East Azerbaijan Earthquakes: A Qualitative Study

·

Introduction: In disasters, health care providers need to find out the essential needs of the affected populations through Rapid Health Needs Assessment (RHNA). In East Azerbaijan earthquakes, a rapid assessment was performed by the provincial health system. The main purpose of this study was to explore the RHNA challenges.

Methods: In this qualitative study (Grounded theory), data was collected through semi-structured interviews with purposely selected health care workers. The data collection process continued until data saturation. All interviews were recorded and then transcribed. The Colaizzi’s descriptive method was used to analyze the data.

Results: The themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews were: 1) Logistic problems 2) Lack of RHNA tools 3) Inherent difficulty of RHNA in disaster situations 4) Lack of preparedness and 5) Lack of coordination between different organizations. These challenges result in inapplicable use of RHNA results.

Conclusion: The most important challenge in this RHNA process was the lack of East Azerbaijan health center preparedness. Although they were familiar with the importance of RHNA, they did not have any plans for conducting RHNA.