Appendix A

Communication Technology Enhancement Discovery Report

DPH and Coordinated Training/Communication Partners

January 21, 2004

Table of Contents

1 Authorizations [3](#authorizations)

2 Reviewers [3](#reviewers)

3 Background [3](#background)

4 Problem Identification [4](#problem-identification)

5 Business Justification [5](#business-justification)

6 Communication Technology Proposal
[6](#communication-technology-proposal)

6.1 Vision [6](#vision)

6.2 High-level Business Requirements
[6](#high-level-business-requirements)

6.3 Scope [6](#scope)

6.4 Priorities AnD Constraints [7](#priorities-and-constraints)

# 1 Authorizations {#authorizations .unnumbered}

The sponsors listed in the table below are members of the Oversight
Committee for the Public Health Communication Technology Enhancement .
They have reviewed and authorized this Discovery Report. Authorization
constitutes agreement with the contents of this document and signifies
approval for the project to move to the initiation/definition phase.

  ----------------------------- ---------------------- -------------------
  Title                         Signature              Date

  Tom Alt, DPH Interim                                 
  Administrator                                        

  Diane Christen, DPH IT                               
  Liaison                                              

  Jean Doeringsfeld, IT                                
  Business Consultant                                  

  Linda Heisler, DMT, Director                         
  of Training DHFS                                     

  Sharon Gehl, Dir.Office of                           
  OperationsPreparedness                               
  Program                                              
  ----------------------------- ---------------------- -------------------

# 2 Reviewers {#reviewers .unnumbered}

The individuals and groups listed in the table below have reviewed and
contributed to this project as outlined in this Initiation Report.

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Name and/or Organization

  Jean Doeringsfeld, DMT

  Diane Christen, DPH

  Sherry Gehl, DPH

  Moira Lafayette, DPH

  Brian Wagner, DMT

  Bioterrorism Steering Committee, DPH
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------

# 3 Background {#background .unnumbered}

Over the past year, the Division of Public Health (DPH) has been
required to upgrade its realtime communication system to meet specific
federal public health preparedness grant requirements. DPH has had to
communicate with, and provide information to, local public health
partners, media, and the general public regarding emerging public health
threats including Monkey Pox, West Nile Virus and SARS.

Programs within DPH have needed the ability to communicate in realtime
with statewide partners to provide updates on emerging public health
threats and have set up conference calls, live webcasts, streaming video
presentations, and webconferences through external vendors as a means to
achieve this communication. The cost of these various training and
communication activites with the local health departments and other
statewide partners last year was approximately \$60,000. In addition,
DPH has downlinked a number of satellite programs around the state at a
cost of approximately \$60 per site and \$35 for a high quality
recording of the program. Due to demand, some of these events were
placed in a streaming file format and linked to the Health Alert Network
(HAN) for a cost of \$7,100 in 2003.

The DPH has engaged in technology plannign for education and
communications consistent with the DHFS goal to prepare and respond to
potential public healht threats such as disease outbreaks or potential
bioterrorism in addition to the goal to ensure a sufficient and
competent workforce to provide public services that are effective and
cost efficient. The DPH in the first phase of a three-phase
communications and education technology upgrade, is investing in an
integrated satellite communication system in partnership with the
Division of Management and Technology (DMT) that will enhance our
capability to use interactive video and audio conferencing, satellite
program downlinking and recording for the purposes of real-time
communication, training and education. The purpose of this proposal is
to identify the need for additional technology in phase two to capture
and store blended media to view live or archived that is intended to
leverage the soon to be installed satellite communicatuion system. Phase
three of this communication upgrade is also addressed in this proposal
which is to purchase a dedicated DHFS digital recording and duplication
device for the purposes of recording satellite and internet programming
and disseminating it in a timely, cost efficient manner to local health
departments and public health partners.

# 4 Problem Identification {#problem-identification .unnumbered}

The demand for satellite broadcast programming and statewide real-time
communication for information sharing and education has been increasing
due to the following influences:

-   Increased use of distance education by public health:

> Due to travel and training restrictions, many public health
> professionals are asking that the professional conferences and
> statewide outreach education events be captured and offered in a
> variety of electronic formats including live Internet, and available
> post-event in an electronic format or archived Internet format. These
> events must be recorded so that they can be made available in multiple
> formats such as VHS, CD, DVD, or webcast for asynchronous viewing.

-   The need for the Department and the Division to use integrated media
    techology for communication on national security, bioterrorism
    issues, and emerging public health threats:

> The Division of Public Health is required to communicate with and
> provide training to local health departments, public health partners
> and the general public using a variety of media channels including
> live, video, audio, and blended media based upon the content of the
> message and the objectives of the communication.

-   The 2003-2004 Public Health Preparedness Grant identified multiple
    technology formats to assist in the delivery of training and
    communication to local and statewide partners in real time
    modalities.

> To meet this demand, DPH has relied on outside vendors to provide live
> press conferences for the media, to capture video presentations for
> education and training purposes, and to provide webcasted video and
> audio conferences to reach a larger statewide audience than those that
> could attend in person. In all of these cases, the technology did not
> exist at DHFS and had to be obtained from outsides sources. With the
> increase in demand, economical and technically feasible solutions are
> necessary to meet the education and communication business needs of
> the Division of Public Helath. Technology must be readily available at
> DHFS, stand alone and portable, yet also able to interface with the
> existing IT, communication and training technology of DHFS. This
> purpose of this proposal is to obtain this technology so that it is
> readily available at DHFS, interfaces with the existing IT,
> communication and training technology of DHFS, and eliminate the need
> to go to outside sources which results in increased costs and time to
> deliver communication and education.

# Business Justification

The Division of Public Health has a clear business need to capture video
and audio and distribute it in a live Internet format, and to have it
available in web cast archived format for future broadcast as indicated
in the following program areas.

In the DPH Bioterrorism/Public Health Preparedeness Grant, the Focus
Areas have identified the need for technology to enhance communication
and training, including:

-   The expansion of the notification capabilities of the Health Alert
    Network and integration of those capabilities with other
    notification systems that are in place (Focus Areas A - Emergency
    Preparedness).

-   Communication capabilities at the scene of an event are being
    evaluated for interoperability across responding agencies and for
    redundancy in case of a telecommunications outage (Focus Areas A -
    Emergency Preparedness).

-   Mechanisms to communicate accurate and timely public information
    about the identification and investigation of a public health
    emergency in order to quell confusion and panic, and to direct
    public behaviors into the actions which best promote the containment
    and cessation of the emergency (Focus Area B - Epidemiology and
    Surveillance).

In public health program areas the business need for communication
technology that allows DPH to reach stakeholders, the media and the
public in multiple ways is increasing.

-   Communication technologies that allow Public Health to reach
    stakeholders, the media and the public in multiple ways (Focus Area
    F - Risk Communication).

-   Statewide broadcast training on SPHERE or other Web-PAMs and
    applications.

Although DPH has identified the need for this technology, it is believed
that the technology would be useful by other Divisions within DHFS. The
Division of Management and Technology state that regular access to a
MediaSite Live unit by the Department-wide Training Office (the Office
of Employee Development and Training, or OEDT) would provide exceptional
outreach capabilities not yet realized. Such a system would provide a
powerful, easy-to-use, extremely inexpensive, and flexible training
distribution venue in which select OEDT training programs could be
distributed throughout statewide DHFS locations. Because system
programming is Internet-based, there would be extremely few DHFS staff
that would not have access to programming provided via this media. The
system could permit distribution of live and pre-recorded HR/ER
programming to staff around the state on a view-as-needed basis. In
addition to general professional development programming, additional
training could include just-in-time training on important issues
pertaining to payroll, benefits, safety, and other staff critical
subjects. Utilization of the MediaSite Live system would be in strong
alignment with OEDT\'s mission for increasing its capabilities to
distribute training materials via distance education. Incurred usage
costs would be minimal. Such a system\'s implementation would continue
to significantly lower Department travel costs associated with staff
training. Furthermore, having a DHFS MediaSite Live unit would decrease
dependence on DOA\'s MediaSite Live system, which is seeing increased
use and will only become less available over time as DOA serves more
centralized IT roles throughout various state agencies.

# 6 Communication Technology Proposal {#communication-technology-proposal .unnumbered}

## 6.1 Vision {#vision .unnumbered}

> The Division of Public Health is looking for an enterprise solution
> that would leverage the Department's existing satellite technology by
> enhancing it to include the capture of video and audio for live
> Internet distribution, or for later broadcast

## 6.2 High-level Business Requirements {#high-level-business-requirements .unnumbered}

The following section describes the primary feature requirements for the
Communication Technology Proposal.

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  **Requirement**           **Summary**
  ------------------------- ---------------------------------------------
  Interface with existing   The technology must allow for interface with
  DHFS technology.          existing DHFS technology in rooms 751 and
                            B370, including the pending satellite system
                            to be installed in late 2003.

  Support for multiple      The technology must be able to combine the
  media formats.            multimedia formats. The ability to record
                            presentations in sharable formats is
                            critical.

  Support for live webcasts The technology must make presentations
  and recorded viewing.     available in a live webcast and in a format
                            for future web viewing.

  Connectivity to existing  Allows connectivity to the integrated
  satellite system at DHFS. satellite system through the mini EOC in DHFS
                            3B.

  No connection or user     The technology must not require individual
  fees.                     user or connection fees.

  Portable technology       The technology must be easily accessable and
                            portable so that it can be used to capture
                            events around the state if necessary.
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------

## Scope

The technology acquired must meet all high-level business requirements
listed above.

The issue of server capacity to accommodate storage of the multimedia
format and streaming of the content to internet users is out of scope
for this current phase. To meet future demand for this technology in the
future, this issue may need to be addressed.

## 6.4 Priorities and Constraints {#priorities-and-constraints .unnumbered}

1.  Functionality.

2.  The techology solution must be available and in place for use before
    the end of the year due to DPH program/grant requirements.

3.  Budget/Resources for the capture and storage technology is no more
    than \$24,500.

4.  Budget for the digital recording and duplication equipment,
    including installation and satellite system integration is \$7,600.