With extensive recovery efforts under way across the country, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is offering a new software platform called ERHMS Info Manager®. Its purpose, according to NIOSH, is to track and monitor emergency response and recovery worker activities during all phases of response following a natural disaster or other public health emergencies.
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The custom-built software was developed to help emergency response organizations implement the NIOSH Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance (ERHMS) framework, a data collection initiative. Due to its capacity to collect, analyze, and report health data, the software decreases the time required to identify exposures and signs and symptoms of illness during an emergency response. Prompt data collection and analysis help identify responders who would benefit from medical referral and possible enrollment in a health surveillance program.
The software allows users to:
- Create responder profiles.
- Record response incidents and map incident locations.
- Assign responders to an incident roster.
- Design forms and surveys using custom and pre-built templates.
- Request information from responders by using forms and surveys.
- View and analyze forms and survey responses.
Said NIOSH director John Howard, MD, “The nation depends on more than 3 million emergency response workers who are trained and prepared to respond to disasters and other emergencies where they often face hazardous conditions. ERHMS Info Manager streamlines the important task of response worker health monitoring and surveillance, saving organizations time while ensuring the health and safety of emergency responders.”
NIOSH has also developed a new landing page on its website (https://www.cdc.gov/niosh) for information related to emergency responder health monitoring and surveillance.