Pittsburgh’s Health Monitoring Systems firm has discovered that regional outbreaks of illness, from the “swine” flu virus to salmonella, are creating demand for real-time data. Its animated mapping software has allowed public health leaders to spot epidemics before patients are even diagnosed. HMS’s EpiCenter software service lets emergency room admissions staffers in 15 states and 350 hospitals pass along the first word on public health threats.
“It’s Accu-weather for disease,” says co-founder Kevin Hutchison. “And something like the H1N1 [swine flu] virus definitely increases the level of attention” to the service.
“We collect data at the ER. People know why they’re sick, so you can match the symptoms with the disease pretty quickly,” says Hutchison, who co-founded the company in 2006. “If a number of people in town are coming to ERs with gastro-intestinal complaints, it may be salmonella.”
The community health surveillance system can link data from national to neighborhood scales to help public health agencies gauge the spread of disease.
“Every year or two, there’s something else getting attention, like SARs, or avian flu, or the West Nile virus,” says Hutchison. “Hospitals send us information as it’s collected for their billing system, and we make a copy of the basic data,” which excludes personal details prohibited by HIPPA regulations. “They don’t have to buy the software.”
HMS, which received funding from Innovation Works and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse in 2008, is hiring developers and customer support staff and expects to reach 20 employees by year-end.
Source: Kevin Hutchison, Health Monitoring Systems
Writer: Christine O’Toole
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