WISER Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders

With the recent increase in power capacity, performance, functionality and usage of hand-held devices (i.e., Personal Digital Assistants – PDAs), the National Library of Medicine evaluated the potential benefit of migrating any of its hazardous material information resources to a PDA-based environment. One of the prominent NLM environmental health databases is the Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB), which focuses on the toxicology of potentially hazardous chemicals and contains peer-reviewed information on human exposure, industrial hygiene, emergency handling procedures, environmental fate, regulatory requirements, and related topics. The information on 4700 substances is very comprehensive, and not conducive for downloading to a PDA environment. However, a subset of the data could be extracted for migration to the smaller screen and storage capacity of handheld devices. First Responders in general, and HazMat (i.e., Hazardous Materials) units in particular, deal with hazardous material incidents as a part of their jobs. Their timely decisions require access to the right information at the right time in the right format, which includes accurate information about hazardous substance(s). The hazardous substance information required by the ERs during an emergency response incident is the subset of HSDB data which covers substance identification support, physical characteristics (properties), human health information, and containment and suppression advice. As a result of the user needs assessment, WISER (Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders) was conceived as an easy-to-use information system for first responders arriving at a HazMat scene. It addresses their need for access to integrated, critical chemical information quickly and conveniently on mobile devices, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), tablets, and field laptops. Because of the criticality of the user interface and functionality of this tool, an operational prototype of WISER was first implemented with extensive participation from regional HazMat teams. Lessons learned from this close working relationship with local ER communities, including field tests, have been applied to the fully operational release of WISER. WISER is designed for a cross-platform, multi-device architecture, and to work in a standalone or connected mode. The current version supports the standalone mode with full functionality and the standard set of 400 hazardous substances available on the device. As reliability of wireless connectivity improves, the WISER architecture supports the capability to send and receive information over the wide area wireless network, receiving new information from dispatch, HSDB, or other sources. The demonstration will illustrate the design features applied to make WISER’s information about a specified chemical readable and easily navigated on a handheld device. In addition to accessing information about a known substance, a useful capability of WISER, and one commended by the emergency responder community, is its support when a substance is unknown. Using input about observed physical properties of the unknown substance, along with reported symptoms and observable signs among victims, WISER can help the user narrow the range of substances that may be involved in a specific incident. As the emergency responder selects observed properties and symptoms, WISER looks in its database for chemical substances that have these characteristics. T he list of possible chemicals decreases as additional information is provided, and WISER presents the user with a list of candidate chemicals at any point in the identification process. The operational versions of WISER for Palm OS and for Pocket PC are now available without charge for downloading to users’ PDAs at http://WISER.nlm. nih.gov. A downloadable Windows version for desktop/laptops and a Web-based version are also available. As of July 1, 2005, more than 18,000 copies of the WISER software have been requested and downloaded. Based on user feedback and continuing advances in the PDA technology, future versions of WISER will build on the substance identification decision-making needs; include information derived from multiple reliable sources (beyond HSDB); modify it for use as a complementary interactive training tool for first responders; integrate with PDA-GIS applications; support enhanced connected (wireless) functionality ; and add support for radiological and biological substances.