The health, safety, and resilience of internally displaced populations in a disaster or public health emergency can be enhanced by the creation and promotion of a standardized personal health information system, which contains essential data elements necessary for healthcare providers, and local, tribal, and state health departments to identify individuals, meet their immediate health needs, better access critical data, and better obtain surveillance and situational awareness, thereby minimizing morbidity and mortality in at-risk populations. A primary goal is to move the dissemination and utilization of an enhanced personal health information instrument from the clinician-patient model to a population-based model to enable the deployment of the instrument across state-lines, especially for those most vulnerable and at greatest risk in a disaster or public health emergency.