Attendance on the 3rd ASEAN Academic Conference on Disaster Health Management, 18 – 20 November 2025, Bangkok, Thailand
I attended the 3rd ASEAN Academic Conference on Disaster Health Management, under the main theme “Building the Disaster Health Management for a Resilient ASEAN,” held from 18 to 20 November 2025 in Bangkok, Thailand. This international conference brought together researchers, healthcare professionals, and policymakers to share knowledge and experience in disaster preparedness, emergency response, and health system resilience. The meeting provided a valuable opportunity to learn about current regional and global approaches to disaster health management and to exchange ideas with experts from various countries.
At the conference, I presented a poster entitled “Adapting a disaster surveillance tool for a 24/7 mental health hotline in Mongolia”. The presentation introduced a pilot project to adapt the Japan-Surveillance in Post-Extreme Emergencies and Disasters (J-SPEED) system for use in Mongolia’s national mental health hotline, established in 2019 by the National Center for Mental Health. The project aimed to develop a standardized data-collection and reporting framework for hotline activities, and the adapted tool was digitized to enable real-time data entry. Following training sessions, pilot testing confirmed that the system was user-friendly and compatible with existing hotline operations. Feedback from staff contributed to refinements to improve data clarity and workflow efficiency. Although full operational data collection is ongoing, the project demonstrated the feasibility of applying disaster surveillance tools to routine monitoring of mental health services and to future disaster preparedness. Discussions with participants provided valuable feedback and highlighted potential applications of the project in other settings.
In addition to my presentation, I attended plenary lectures and symposium sessions focusing on regional collaboration in disaster health management. These sessions deepened my understanding of current international trends and challenges in disaster medicine. Overall, participation in this conference significantly broadened my academic perspective and professional network.