Announcing EDIS - Press Release

CWC Services are pleased to announce a unique development in emergency/evacuation management and community resilience:

EDIS – Emergency Data Interchange System

Our manual products all use GS1 barcodes, the de-facto standard recognised by the UK NHS and across the globe. As a core feature of our products, they uniquely identify the individual throughout the incident dynamic; allowing the tracing of victims by responsible staff in a robust, well tested manual system. Increased resilience is provided through efficient, simple and accountable workflow.

These features are taken to another level with our electronic system - EDIS, designed to be used together with our manual systems...

What does EDIS do?

EDIS uses the same GS1 barcodes as our manual systems. Using a mobile device such as a smartphone, the EDIS handset captures the barcode which is linked to an individual’s distinct file. The handset enables the initial rescuer to add information to the file such as Gender, Adult/Child and Notes, and to add photos, eg. of the patient’s face or injuries. Other information can be added - at that time or later, by any authorised handset and in any location - so the file can be built up.

Each time the file is accessed to add more information, by perhaps a separate paramedic or doctor, data gathered are date/time stamped and, where possible, geo-tagged. A full audit trail is maintained centrally for subsequent analysis or ad-hoc enquiry. Information is never lost, only built upon. Police and Coroner’s Officers, indeed any of the wide number of responsible persons involved in handling incidents, will find this particularly valuable.

Purpose and Benefits

The purpose of EDIS is to allow ambulance services, hospitals, police or other responsible authorities to "track and trace" individuals, victims or patients regardless of where they end up an the incident dynamic. For example, police will be able to interrogate the file if necessary, using the barcode and EDIS app, assisting incident investigation and helping the Casualty Bureau to work more efficiently. In an evacuation scenario the Local Authority could rapidly link individual evacuees with their children and other relatives, who may have been taken to different holding facilities/accommodation. In the hospital evacuation scenario, the system will allow patients to be traced as they move between different facilities, allowing instant determination of an individual’s location and crucial information to be communicated "with" the patient.

EDIS is in ongoing development and security, administrative and other desirable features will be added when the requirements of a given application are made clear by organisations interested in deploying the system. The core features of EDIS are demonstrable now, and we are convinced that emergency organisations and management teams will find it a huge advantage in the areas of preparedness and resilience. It allows for instant communication of information about victims and patients to staff working across emergency domains and at distance, simplifying identification, determination of needs and notification of relatives.

Additional capabilities

Retrospective analysis of information gathered during the emergency such as numbers of victims dealt with, which routes were used to transport them, which organisations participated and where victims ended up, for example, could greatly assist organisations improve their planning in handling potential future events. Such information also has value as evidence and for legal verifiability, and to learn lessons for improved handling of incidents into the future.

In addition to hospitals, first response groups and local/national government, we feel that EDIS could be valuable to international aid organisations such as the Red Cross or Red Crescent which deal with large scale disasters such as volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and similar incidents. The ability to track and trace individuals more rapidly and accurately should benefit everyone affected by these catastrophic events.

Interested groups and organisations are invited to contact CWC Services for further information or to arrange a demonstration of the EDIS system.

Further information / Contact
Web: http://www.cwc-services.com/edis
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Telephone: +44 (0)1353 968982