Homeland Security

Emergency Patient Tracking System

During the anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, public health officials in St. Louis realized they needed to be able to manage large numbers of casualties in a medical emergency. So they created the Emergency Patient Tracking System. It's essentially a high-end inventory management system, but instead of tracking widgets, it tracks patients.

By using off-the-shelf technology-including radios equipped with Global Positioning System transponders, bar-code readers (patients are given bar-coded bracelets for identification) and a secure, wireless communications network that allows Web-based access-ambulance crews, hospital workers and public health officials now monitor the flow of patients throughout the urban medical system.

"It's a very simple system, and therefore very flexible," says Dr. Jeffrey Lowell, former chairman of the St. Louis Medical Response System and now the senior medical adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. Training takes "a few seconds," Lowell says, and because the system is used daily for the routine transport of patients, there's no need to make special adaptations during an emergency.

The technology easily could be applied anywhere satellite communications are available; in remote areas, portable communications towers could be used. "This could be scaled to the entire country," Lowell says.

WHAT IT IS

A tracking system that uses bar-code identification tags and wireless communications to monitor and direct patient care during mass-casualty incidents.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

It provides real-time situational awareness, allowing officials to direct resources effectively, potentially saving lives.

LESSON LEARNED

Routine use of the system ensures that operators will know how to use it in an emergency.

Palanterra

Since 1998, certain high-profile public events, such as the Olympics and Super Bowl, have been designated "national special security events," and received extra attention from the nation's defense, law enforcement and intelligence agencies. But after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, even that level of scrutiny increased.

Such was the case at the Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego, when the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) deployed what's known as a "common operational picture." It's a way of visually displaying multiple kinds of intelligence-related data, particularly of a geographical nature, in one online space that various groups can access. NGA calls its version Palanterra.

Aggregating information from federal, state and local agencies, Palanterra allows users to access, organize, analyze and disseminate information that assists security operations. For example, in preparation for the Super Bowl, Palanterra was used to create a digital version of San Diego, complete with lines of sight that showed how terrorists could launch attacks.

NGA officials believe that Palanterra is advanced enough that it could be used by Homeland Security agencies as well as state and local authorities. And because Palanterra is on the Web, it's easy to access.

WHAT IT IS

A Web-based tool for viewing virtual versions of cities, buildings and infrastructure.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

It lets many security agencies look at the same picture.

LESSON LEARNED

Security and intelligence agencies need a common space to view geospatial intelligence.