Table 5.

Summary of the research gaps, research questions, and future research directions

Research Gaps/emerging issues	Open research questions (ORQ) and opportunities	Future Research Directions
1. Strategy to reduce mortality, and ensure that vulnerable people, refugees, and displaced populations have access to testing, referral, and definitive treatment alongside all populations	ORQ1: How to avoid the substantial disruptions to humanitarian operations without compromising access to health and other essential services, and the ability to respond to urgent community needs?	COVID-19 has failed the existing approach of lean operations, single sourcing, and inventory minimization. Therefore, there is a need for new business models in the prevailing post COVID scenario During COVID-19, lack of strategy and unpreparedness of different agencies were observed. Government and healthcare organizations will have to find the solution that if a similar type of pandemics repeats how quickly HSC can be geared up Some essential items are to be prepositioned in HSC. Future research should suggest optimization models to find the optimum volume of the items and the suitable locations for prepositions
2. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, companies focused on contract manufacturing, lean manufacturing, offshoring, and outsourcing. These strategies did not work at the time of disruptions	ORQ2: What should be the strategy for resource sharing and avoiding single-sourcing during the pandemic situation?	Joint procurement of essential items from different sources and their feasibility during the time of disaster should be explored as a part of future studies The possibilities of multiple sourcing and local sourcing are to be explored during the pandemics
3. Past epidemic scenarios show that aid coordination systems need to improve across agencies and the UN clusters as a whole	ORQ3: How to improve the coordination among the different aid agencies during the pandemic?	During and post-disaster, swift trust among the different actors of the humanitarian supply chain and proper coordination are required. Researchers should explore strategies to establish the swift-trust and proper coordination without loss of time The researchers should propose a coordination mechanism between the governments and citizens for a proper flow of the right information from top to bottom to avoid any chaotic situation
4. The availability of time to respond in sudden-onset disaster/ new pandemic is very less which results in a big loss in the form of lives of the population	ORQ4: How to reduce the response time to provide relief in the case of pandemic outbreaks where no medical protocol is available?	The researchers should suggest a mechanism of collaboration among different government and private partners and international and national NGOs so that decisions could be taken on time Distribution and supply of essential items such as oxygen and some medicines were observed as a major challenge during the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, optimization of the distribution network of such critical items can be further studied as a future scope
5. To establish a proper communication channel between the health care service providers and patient, use of telemedicine, maintaining and monitoring of data related to the pandemic	ORQ5: How to implement the emerging technologies in the humanitarian supply chain to address the various challenges during pandemics?	Lack of use of technology in the health sector and humanitarian operations has also created many challenges, so future studies should be done on the application of emerging technologies in managing HSCs during pandemics Effective tracking of lifesaving items such as oxygen, medicines, and ventilators had been a major challenge. Future research should explore applying technologies such as Blockchain, RFID, and IOT for this purpose
6. In the case of a pandemic outbreak, the quick management of medical resources and effective planning and preparedness has not been observed in most of the regions of the world	ORQ6: How can medical items be categorized according to their use and availability, and do effective planning for the unexpected future?	The methods for classification of the medical items based on availability, utility, and self-life, annual values need to be explored to avoid the unforeseen future