Leslie Sokolow, Noel Williams, Ron McGaugh, Carla
Rodriguez, Tom Reynolds, Regina Tan, Julia Gunn

• Information gathering
• Information sharing
• Reactive process

– Health
• ED visits
•
911 calls
• Poison control
• Death certificates
•
Veterinarian data
• Laboratory results
•
Epi studies
• Drop-in surveillance for special events (ie Katrina shelters)
• I&Q – contact tracing
– Environmental
•
Weather
• Pollen
• Air quality
•
Water quality measures
– Other
• Population profiles
• Organization characteristics
•
Transportation (Cars, Rail, Air: Volume & Routing)
• Infrastructure Data (Fire/Police Departments, Schools, Hospitals, Hotels, Laboratories)
•
Passenger Tracking

– Does another agency collect the information?
– Can we partner?
– Communication across data silos
– What can we prepare pre-event – templates,
MOUs, development of portals
• Roles and responsibilities
– What are the holes – what is missing and who has responsibility for developing solutions
– Don’t waste time creating what already exits.

• With whom
– Government
• Public health, emergency management, law enforcement, military
– Local
– State
– Federal
– Others
• Red Cross
• THE MEDIA
• At what level of detail
– Aggregate data
– Line listings
– Pictures
– Analytics
– Dynamic mapping
– Exportable data/results

• Monitor the evolution of an “event”
• Resource
– Allocation
– Redistribution
• Planning (Before - During – After)
• Control measures & process measures
– Vaccination rate, shelter/hospital occupancy, medical deployment, evacuation plans
• Inform decision makers
– Everyone using the same information
– Levels the playing field
• Varies with agency roles and responsibilities

• Disasters
– Accidents: Plane crash, fires
– Hurricanes, floods, earthquakes
– Explosions
• Radiation – Dirty Bomb
• Chemical - Spills
• Biological – BT, Influenza, Emerging Infectious
Diseases
• Defining MCI and levels of situational awareness
– Public health vs emergency management vs others

• Interoperability
– Open architecture
– Data standards
– Templates
– Secure
• Plug & play
• Modular ie food history
• Equipment – PDA’s, GPS
• Backup systems
– Number and location (off-site, extraregional)
– System of last resort – paper and pencils
• Real time? Issues related to data lags

• Common language
– Data definitions
• What does dead mean? Confirmed vs reported
– Standard chief complaint/diagnosis
• Who decides?
• What is lost is translation?
• Telecommunication infrastructure:
– Phones:
• Land, cell, satellite
– Radios
– Blackberries, pager, etc
– WiFi

• Federal State Local
• Emergency management services
– Information systems
• Patient tracking: Bar coding; RFID
• WEBEOC
– Field health care sites ie DMAT
• Dueling algorithms
– Information requests to local/state public health first responders

• IT Capacity
• Epidemiology and Statistical
– Analysis
• Adjust baseline with population and health care utilization shift during an event
– Proxy data? Is it valid? Other information?
– Short baseline
– Are there gaps – and who can help
• Rural areas – Are their special needs? Funding
• Culture of information sharing
– Standard operating procedures
• Short term vs Long term
– What are issues? What needs more planning
– What needs to be set up immediately for Panflu?

• Forum for sharing lessons learned
– “Lessons Learned Information Sharing
(LLIS.gov) is the national network of
Lessons Learned and Best Practices for emergency response providers and homeland security officials.”
• Web clearinghouse for database, GIS, map layers, web resources
• Sharing table top experience

• IT/Informatics/Surveillance table top
– Local
– State
– Federal
– Health sites – Can we leverage their IT/IS capacity
– Others – Banking, Finance, Military, Law, EMS
• National CIO
– Advocating for national data standards across disciplines and jurisdictions
• Public health responder training
• Flexibility and expandable - BT to hurricane related injuries
– Are we ready for mental health surveillance?
– Are we ready for the unforeseeable?

• Can situational awareness compromise public trust ?
• If yes – what are the safe guards?