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DVI Module

Dead Body Management and Disaster Victim Identification

Purpose

This module is meant to support communication and data management in the handling of dead bodies and the identification of fatalities after a disaster, in order to ensure that those killed by a disaster get identified and buried individually and in dignity, and the bereaved get the chance to find out about the fates and whereabouts of their beloved ones.

The most commonly used term for these issues is Disaster Victim Identification (DVI), that's why this module is named DVI.

Current Status

  • Planning / Draft

Module Roadmap

  • Initial version
    • add your suggestions here
  • Improvements
    • add your suggestions here

Desirable module capabilities

Body Tracking Flowchart

  • Register body
  • Retrieve unique body reference label
  • Submit initial report (date/place of find, persons involved, sex, age group, state of the body)
  • Submit recovery clues

Immediately after or even at the same time as the rescue operations, body search teams go on inspection of the scene, with the goal to locate, mark and register all dead bodies and body parts (including a medical confirmation that life is extinct, if available).

They also evaluate if special measures or equipment for recovery are required, e.g. if the body is under water or slopped with heavy wreckage, or if it is located in hazardous environment (e.g. mines, ongoing hostilities, toxic gas or fluids, danger of collapse, fire, radiation, …), or if it is potentially infective or the like.

All data captured by the search teams can be stored in the database, and the system can produce unique labels to mark the bodies.

These data can be searched and sorted by multiple criteria to assign recovery teams to the different locations (depending on their capabilities, capacities and equipment).

(for later improvement: Interactive mapping of the body search, scene grid, messaging function to coordinate recovery teams).

Body movement/handling

  • Body movement journal
  • Body handling journal

From there, any movement of a body (or other item) will be observed by its reason, date/time, destination and transport conditions, and recorded in the database until the final release for burial or issuance to relatives.

In the same manner, each and every measure taken on a body (e.g. removal of clothing or other items, washing, medical examination, cosmetics, embalming, viewing) and its reason and results are recorded in the database.

Body recovery and storage

Subsequently, recovery teams retrieve and wrap the bodies, body parts, and property or other items (that might perhaps later help to clear the identity of the deceased and their individual cause of death), and remove them from the scene, taking them to the determined collection points (e.g., morgue), where they will be checked in and appropriately stored for further handling, particularly for examination and identification.

At this point, bodies may also come from other sources (e.g. first aid points, hospitals, or brought in by volunteer helpers). They all have to be labeled, wrapped and checked in as well, and their individual history must be stored into the database.

Post-mortem data (PM data)

Examination data (or references to their sources) can be stored in the database with cross-reference to the body. Body Data

Ante-mortem data (AM data)

Special AM data for identification purposes (and to find out the possible number of victims), as they can be enquired from relatives, witnesses, missing-person-lists and/or official registries, can also be stored in the database.

Case management

Cases are independent data structures to handle the individual identification process. Each case represents a single person.

All bodies and body parts, as well as AM files of missing persons are assigned to provisional cases and, in the course of clarification, cases can be merged or reassigned to other cases, until, as possible, for each case the particular identity of the deceased and the cause of death are established.

Each merging or reassignment is recorded, as well as opening, closing and reopening of cases.

This submodule provides matching search and sorting by multiple criteria (simple/advanced search).

Reporting functions

* Case reports Reporting functions include the printout of case data to DVI forms as recommended by the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO, Interpol).

* Statistics Reporting functions of this module will also provide statistics overview on the clarification process (victims count, identification rate, ..), as well as individual case reports.

*Body tracking Finally, reporting functions will also provide a synopsis of all procedures done on a particular body.

Administration

Administration issues include the registration of all participating teams, institutions and other facilities, body storage and viewing sites, etc., as well as the configuration of workflow transitions for cases and bodies.


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