This paper describes the design and function of an application that enables vulnerable people to provide medical information for use in disasters, and presents the results of an initial test of its usability in Nankoku, Japan. The application consists of two parts: K-DiPS Solo, a smartphone app, and K-DiPS Online, a web application for disaster management by local governments. We asked vulnerable people or their family caregivers to enter medical information into the app on their smartphones and connected this information to a local government application as a demonstration of a disaster response solution that manages information. We targeted a group of 14 healthy older people. The user information that they entered into the app was stored in the cloud via the communication system of the mobile phone. A ledger of vulnerable people for use in the event of a disaster was automatically created on the web application using the information supplied by the individuals. Local government staff corrected the location information, if necessary, by dragging points plotted on a map. This disaster response solution was shown to connect individuals to government offices, and to enable a consistent flow of information from patient details to stocking of supplies, and for simulation, training, and response during disasters.
Keywords: K-DiPS; disaster preparedness; smartphone application; web application.