Rui Chen, PhD
Assistant Professor
Information Systems and Operations Management
Miller College of Business
Ball State University
Co-authors: Dr Raj Sharman, Raghav H Rao, and Shambhu J Upadhyaya

Research motivation
◦ Response information system interoperability
◦ Standard - data model

Research question
◦ What is the data model design methodology
◦ What are the key data elements to be contained in an
emergency data model

Fire incident scenario
◦ $14.6 billion loss in 2007
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Community
Emergency
Medical Service
Data Standards
Focus
EMS Data Dictionary (v. 2.2.1)
Within-Domain
Interoperability
HL7 Messaging Protocol
Within-Domain
Interoperability
PHIN Vocabulary Standards and
Specifications
Within-Domain
Interoperability
Transportation
Vehicular Emergency Incident Data
Exchange Format Standard
Within-Domain
Interoperability
Transportation
IEEE Std.
1512
Standards
Health Care
Public Health
Justice
Homeland
Security and
Justice
9-1-1 Service
Traffic Management Standard
Public Safety Traffic Incident
Management Message Sets
Within-Domain
Interoperability
Objectives
Enable the efficient sharing of EMS information
on personnel, patients, situations, assessments,
medical history, and medical devices.
Enable the efficient sharing of medical data
among all healthcare systems.
Enable and foster the use and exchange of
consistent information among public health
partners.
Enable the automatic distribution of vehicular
emergency incident data between the Telematics
Service Providers and emergency personnel
Enable the sharing of traffic and incident
information among agencies
Enable the sharing of transportation safety
information among agencies and the public.
Global Justice XML Data Model
Within-Domain
Interoperability
Enable the sharing of criminal justice
information among law enforcement
National
(NIEM)
Mixture of
Within- and
Cross-Domain
Interoperability
Enable the nationwide sharing of information on
justice, emergency management, geospatial and
infrastructure protection, immigration etc.
E9-1-1
Standards
Information
Exchange
Model
Standards for Automatic
Location Identification (ALI) &
GIS Mapping
Standards for Local Exchange
Carriers, ALI Service Providers
& 9-1-1 Jurisdictions
Within-Domain
Interoperability
Enable the automatic sharing of ALI data
between Service Providers and 9-1-1 Data Base
Enable the efficient sharing of number pooling,
database communication, and general message
exchanges among Service Providers and 9-1-1
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
Activity theory
◦ Psychological meta-theory
◦ Key tenets
 Subject, object, tool, rule,
community, division of labor
◦ Development
 First, second, and third generation
activity theory
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Offsite (EOC)
Managerial
Large Time Window
(Many-Second)
Onsite (ICP)
Operational
Small Time Window
(Mini-Second)
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Instrument
dispatch channels
Technical issues
&
Social issues
Timeline
(de) activation
Environment
social setting
Object
global situational awareness,
strategic response
management
Subject
supervisor
Rule
regulation
Community
local & state
Division of Labor
collaboration
Communication activity
during offsite response
(Many-second)
Shared Objects
inquiry, request &
command
Dynamics of
Interactions
Communication activity
during onsite response
(Mini-second)
Instrument
field note
Timeline
alarm, respond
Environment
natural setting
Technical issues
&
Social issues
Object
Awareness of local
situation, tactical operation
Subject
first
responder
Rule
manual
Community
fire, police, & EMS
Division of Labor task
assignment
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Inspired by Cybernetics Research
ManySecond
Revised
response plan
Building property
use, structure (e.g.,
floor map), etc
Corrective
action
Performance
record
Performance
record
Incident liability,
equipment damage,
loss estimate, etc
MiniSecond
Preplanning State
Recovery State
Response State
Critique, after-action-report, case archive
Recommended improvement
Solid line:
typical communication during the response states
Dotted line: response cycle with reinforcing feedbacks for corrective actions
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Illustrative
Issue
Potential Contradiction
Response agencies often compete for the
incident commander position. Most of the
Fire, Police,
time, the fulfillment of this position is
Emergency
determined by the incident type. For
Medical Service,
example, if there is a criminal aspect to an
Hazardous
incident, law enforcement agencies are in
Material Team
charge of the scene; in all other fire related
incidents, fire chief is in charge.
Emergency
Managers
New Data Type
Incident category
Information
sharing
in
emergency Information sensitivity
management should be controlled to ensure level and personnel
that information is distributed among
security clearance
authorized personnel only.
level
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
Semiotics literature

Signs for emergency management
◦ Sign-based language
◦ Non-sign-based one

Symbol design foundation
◦ ANSI Z535.2 and ISO3864-2002
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Data Type
Data Element
Definition
Symbol
Casualty
Injury Severity
Description of the injury level of a victim
See below
DANGER
Critically ill.
Life threatening risk.
Medical treatment
immediately.
 Signal word indicates the level
of the alert
 Identification of the reason
 Consequences of not following
the signal
 Appropriate measures to take
↑ Graphic is used to strengthen the word message
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Documents
•fire incident response
technical data forms; fire
incident response
dispatch forms; field
notes; chronological logs;
fire response plans
Systems
• fire incident
messaging systems
Data
Collection
Data Analysis
Experts
• Responders in western
New York
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
Define, type, and structure identified components

Object-oriented structure
National Information
Exchange Model (NIEM)
Data Analysis
Request for Comment
Distribution
Model Specification
Feedback Synthesize
and Model Updates
Model Validation
Data Model
Finalization
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
Overview Diagram

Spreadsheet Specification
◦ Data type
◦ Code list
◦ Symbol collection

XML Schema
“ASTESF” approach:
Activity theory and semiotics
augmented by timeline, environment,
state, and feedback perspectives
◦ Data type
◦ Data property
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Factors
Fire Model
(ASTESF)
Example
Evidence
The
U.S. Federal
Emergency
Management
Agency (FEMA) and
Theory-based
The extent
to which the data
model is
High
ASTESF approach
development
developed using theoretical
approach
Emergency
Management
Institute
(EMI)
-2007
All stakeholders
The extent the relevant stakeholders are
Specification
Support
Process

Example Measurement
High
Fire, Police, and HazMat, etc
queried
Brief Explanation
Data Model Support
Whether the data model is for specific
Incident specificityResponders adopt sound risk
Yes
Fire related incident
incident type
Risk
Data elements capture the fire
Transaction
Whether the data
model allows
Plans, activities, and
management
principles
in users to
Highenvironment threat
Orientation
hazard
and
support
administertasks
operation
schedules, etc
assigning
androutines
resources
Whether the data model allows users to
Fire behavior, ignition,
Data elements
capture
the dynamic
Decision support
High
make
informed
decisions
building structure, etc
Responders use creative and
associations
among individual,
Whether theapproaches
data model allows
users
to
innovative
in
Flexibility
Change
Association data of activity,
handle changes
inchallenges
the response organization,
High and incident
solving
disaster
management
management IMS, and organization, etc
operation
Whether the data
model
Responders
ensure
theallows
unityusers to
Organization
IMS unit and
Data elements
capture
the response
manage
organization
structure
High
of efforts among all levels ofand
management
organization
structure and division of labor of
chain of command
under
Integration management
incident management
system
XML based
modelthat
for varied
Implementability collaboration
Ease of use by and
the potential users
High
platforms
and
technologies
need to be integrated
coordination
Reuse percentage of existing data
Many elements also serve
Reusability
High
Data
elements
capture
the
elements
other scenario
Responders
strive for the
Number of violations in the
reinforcing feedback and corrective
success
despite
of
the
failures
Resilience
relationships among all data elements
Consistency
High
Enforced
through XML schema
actions in
incident
response
and
constraints
(reverse)
operations
involvement
Principle
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
Contribution to theory
◦ Data model development - ASTESF approach
 Uses multiple activity systems (i.e., mini- and many-second response);
captures activities with the temporal sequence of development,
connectivity between multiple states, and internal reinforcing feedbacks
(within- and between-state), and endorses semiotic designs for better
conveying notations.

Implication to practice
◦ Reduction of communication interoperability barrier

Extension of scope
◦ National standards
◦ Other incidents such as flood
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