Real time emergency response monitoring and data capture for chemical and radiological incidents

The City of New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) wanted to improve both emergency environmental monitoring and reporting for environmental incidents (e.g., bio-terrorism, accidents, etc.) and day-to-day field inspections. The data collection technique in place required responders to collect readings using commonly used mobile environmental and radiological monitoring devices (Ludlum, Ludlum 2241 Rae Systems, PPB PID, Dust Track, Q Trak, HNU 102 PID) The responders would then telephone the readings in to HQ on completion of analysis or submit the information when back in the office. This method was both slow and potentially inaccurate, impeding the ability for analysts to make critical decisions related to public safety. The solution developed by Global Bay Mobile Technologies, Inc. for DOHMH leverages a ruggedized Pocket PC device that supports wireless protocols (GPRS) Bluetooth connectivity, GPS and Barcode Scanning. With this solution, the readings from the environmental monitoring instruments and related data are captured into Global Bay's HazardPoint software and then wirelessly transmitted to a central DOHMH server for 'real-time' analysis and mapping. Data collection forms are designed and deployed through Global Bay's HazardPoint web console. The DOHMH can manage users, forms and data centrally from the HazardPoint console. Forms can be edited and pushed out to devices in a matter of minutes supporting flexibility to tailor forms to specific incidents.