New software aimed at keeping responders safe before and after disasters

Washington – NIOSH has launched a software platform designed to chart emergency responder and recovery worker safety and health before, during and after providing aid to natural disasters victims or other public health emergencies.

Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance Info Manager assists in the automation of data collection, analysis and reporting, and “will help decrease the time required to identify causes, determine risk factors and inform implementation of appropriate interventions” for emergency responders, according to NIOSH.

Using data management technology from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ERHMS Info Manager allows users to:

• Develop responder profiles.
• Record response incidents and map incident locations.
• Assign responders to incident rosters.
• Create forms and surveys from custom and established templates.
• Request responder information using forms and surveys.
• View and analyze form and survey responses.

NIOSH recommends the free software for all workers involved in emergency responder deployment and protection, including incident command staff; response organization leadership; health, safety and medical personnel; and emergency responders themselves.

“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,” NIOSH Director John Howard said in a Sept. 6 press release. “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.”