Hhs To Test Use Of Handled Device For Transmitting Bioterrorism Information
The Department of Health and Human Services will begin testing a system using handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs) for transmitting urgent information about biological agents to clinicians.
The three-month pilot test of the PDA network is designed to gauge the best ways for federal officials to communicate effectively with front-line clinicians in the event of a bioterrorist attack. The project will evaluate how and when clinicians download this urgent information and whether they find it useful to receive it via their PDAs.
The project will evaluate the use of a system created by ePocrates, the nation’s largest physicians’ handheld network, for sending an urgent “Doc Alert” message to more than 700,000 front- line clinicians, including more than 250,000 physicians — more than 40 percent of the practicing physicians in the United States.
The test message will contain a special memo on the highest threat (category A) biological diseases/agents, which include anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox, tularemia and viral hemorrhagic fevers, including Ebola. The message will also include Web links for clinicians to go to for additional information about diagnosing and treating the conditions caused by the biological agents. Clinicians will be able to save this information to their PDAs for future reference.
The pilot project will be managed by HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and is designed to complement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s existing Health Alert Network, which wa
