Patent ID: 8548839

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for coordinating a response of volunteers, including specialist volunteers and generalist volunteers, to a public health event, comprising: receiving, on a network-accessible computer, data indicative of a public health event; identifying a location of an epicenter of the public health event and storing the location in a memory of the computer; identifying, in response to the public health event, volunteers and receiving centers within a predetermined distance of the epicenter using a processor, wherein identifying volunteers includes: (i) receiving volunteer and location data reflecting a volunteer position, the volunteer position comprising a current position of a volunteer or a position to which the volunteer has indicated an ability to report and determining a distances between the volunteer position and the location of the epicenter, and (ii) computing a number of volunteers for which the distance between the volunteer position and the location of the epicenter is less than or equal to a preselected threshold distance, and identifying receiving centers includes: (i) determining distances between stored receiving center locations and the location of the epicenter, and (ii) computing a number of center locations for which the distance between the stored receiving center location and the location of the epicenter is less than or equal to the preselected threshold distance; designating as a set of volunteers either, (i) the identified volunteers when the computed number of volunteers is less than the computed number of receiving centers, or otherwise (ii) a balance of volunteers in excess of those that can be assigned uniformly to the receiving centers; assigning, using a processor, volunteers to receiving centers within the predetermined distance of the epicenter, the assigning step comprising identifying a first, a second, and a third receiving center, such that a distance between the first and second receiving centers is greater than a distance between the first and third receiving centers, assigning from the designated set at least one volunteer to each of the first and second receiving centers, and assigning no volunteers to the third receiving center; transmitting, using a transmitter connected to the network, notifications to the specialist volunteers and generalist volunteers of their respective assignments.