Situational Awareness February 23, 2006 Leslie Sokolow, Noel Williams, Ron McGaugh, Carla Rodriguez, Tom Reynolds, Regina Tan, Julia Gunn

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Situational AwarenessFebruary 23, 2006Leslie
Sokolow, Noel Williams, Ron McGaugh, Carla
Rodriguez, Tom Reynolds, Regina Tan, Julia Gunn
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Components of Situational Awareness

• Information gathering
• Information sharing
• Reactive process

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Information gathering Data Types

• Health
• ED visits
• 911 calls
• Poison control
• Death certificates
• Veterinarian data
• Laboratory results
• Epi studies
• Drop-in surveillance for special events (ie
  Katrina shelters)
• IQ contact tracing
• Environmental
• Weather
• Pollen
• Air quality
• Water quality measures
• Other
• Population profiles
• Organization characteristics
• Transportation (Cars, Rail, Air Volume
  Routing)

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Information gathering Data Sources

• 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
• Dont waste time creating what already exits.

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Information sharing

• 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

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Reactive Process

• 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

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Scenarios Mass Casualty Incident

• 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

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Electronic Communication

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

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Communication

• 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

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Coordination

• 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

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Time Resource Constraints

• 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?

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Virtual social network

• 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

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Gap Analysis

• 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?

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

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• Will it happen?