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New Hand-held Information System for Emergency Responders |
The National Library of Medicine (NLM), a component of the National Institutes of Health, has announced the release of a PDA software tool designed to help first responders when they arrive at a hazardous material (Hazmat) incident, such as a chemical spill.
WISER (Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders) provides the emergency responder with critical information on hazardous substances, including physical characteristics, human health data, and containment and suppression information. Employing the unique characteristics of a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), WISER is customized for easy navigation and quick access to key information required by first responders. To aid decision making, users can specify the role they are currently performing at the scene of an incident, and WISER organizes the critical information in a sequence most relevant to a first responder on-the-scene, a Hazmat specialist, or an emergency medical specialist (EMS).
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. More than 1700 copies of the WISER software have been requested and downloaded. A desktop version will be available later this spring, and a web-based version is also being developed.
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