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“Creative software architecture has given us do-it-yourself astrology charts and income tax returns. This is the same basic concept. It just matters a lot more.”
Robert Neches, PhD
Head, Project Informatics |
The Pediatric Emergency Decision Support System is an emergency planning support tool available to the public. The tool is intended for hospital emergency planners.
There are nearly 300 accredited hospitals and trauma centers in Los Angeles.
That means there are too many institutions to contact individually and too many medical professionals to train in pediatric disaster care. Nevertheless, research surveys suggest that most hospitals in California are inadequately prepared to meet the pediatric disaster needs of their community. In fact, in one recent study, fewer than one in four hospital and public health emergency agency officials in the state know of having written disaster plans that specifically address the triage of children and adolescents.
Why not use computer technology to fill the planning and training void?
A major obstacle to good pediatric disaster preparedness is lack of requisite planning know-how. Of course, in-person training led by qualified experts is ideal. Yet given the size and complexity of the County, it is an impractical goal. On the other hand, the tremendous power of innovative computer technology could make it possible to contact, train and potentially drill administrators and clinicians throughout the entire region.
Very few software engineering experts could tackle this assignment.
Fortunately, Robert Neches, PhD, is one of the few. A division director within the Information Sciences Institute of the University of Southern California, Dr. Neches directs the Project Informatics core of Childrens Hospital Pediatric Disaster Preparedness Project.
This project core, made up of medical experts from Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and software engineers from USC, is (a) culling the existing national disaster preparedness data to identify best practices for pediatric response; and (b) developing original software that can help hospitals and other disaster response personnel generate and maintain a preparedness plan specifically tailored to their institution. The core’s specific programming goals for 2008 include:
- Develop Pediatric Emergency Decision Support System (PEDSS) software
- Create a companion user manual for participating network members
- Design PEDSS server support architecture
- Integrate into PEDSS an initial reunification module
- Launch PEDSS among collaborating research centers and network members
- Conduct survey-based evaluation studies
Develop Pediatric Emergency Decision Support System (PEDSS) software
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