emergency-sc — archive

[Patrick Gannon]

Dr. Carol, Should we be reaching out to INSTEDD (International Networked System for Total Early Disease Detection) to inform them about CAP and suggest a pilot project where CAP would become part of their notification message process? "Can the Internet help stop pandemics?" http://www.lunchoverip.com/2006/03/can_the_interne.html See also: Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN) http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/media/nr-rp/2004/2004_gphin-rmispbk_e.html I was not able to find any links to a website for INSTEDD. There was a presentation at the Geneva Security Forum last month by Mike Ryan from WHO, but it occurred before I arrived and I did not get to speak directly with the WHO rep. A blog by one of the moderators includes a recap of Mike's speech. "Mike Ryan (WHO head of epidemics): The current major epidemic risk is avian flu. If we look at the history of disasters and wars, most of them are local, geographically identified events, where help can arrive from outside. If you think of a global pandemic, that's a totally different scale. The preparedness/response ot the health impact of a pandemic is one thing; the societal preparedness is something we have never truly dealt with at a global scale (if large numbers of people can't get to work; if politics needs to respond to panic; etc). Ten years ago we believed that having information was an advantage; today everybody has the information, the real challenge is understanding which piece is relevant, is finding sophisticated ways to process it fast: analyze, assess, and respond. (BG: see INSTEDD; and WHO is working on an early alert system using mobile phones, probably SMS, but many questions are open, such as how to establish the credibility of the source)." Elysa, June, The issue of "how to establish the credibility of the source' is one that arose at the Workshop on Public Warning we did with ITU in Geneva last October. It appears to me that there is still an open need for an OASIS group to work on defining a set of best practices for how to establish a secure identity management facility for use with CAP. Would it be appropriate for our Emergency MS SC and our IDtrust MS SC to get together to discuss such a project? Patrick Gannon