NIOSH Releases New Software To Monitor The Health And Safety Of Emergency Responders

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announces the availability of a new software platform called ERHMS Info Manager to track and monitor emergency response and recovery worker activities during all phases of emergency response following a natural disaster or other public health emergency.

“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,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. “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.”

ERHMS Info Manager is a custom built software product developed by NIOSH that emergency responder organizations can use to implement the Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance (ERHMS) framework. The freely available software can be used by anyone involved in the deployment and protection of emergency responders, including: incident command staff, response organization leadership, health, safety and medical personnel, and emergency responders.

“By being able to easily collect, analyze, and report health data, ERHMS Info Manager decreases the time required to identify exposures and signs and symptoms illness throughout an emergency response to ensure workers are not harmed and can respond effectively,” said NIOSH ERHMS Coordinator Jill Shugart, MSPH. “Data collected before, during, and after a response also helps identify which responders would benefit from medical referral and possible enrollment in a long-term health surveillance program.”

ERHMS Info Manager uses CDC’s publically-accessible data management and informatics tool, Epi Info for creating forms, capturing data, and analyzing data specific to emergency response situations. ERHMS Info Manager allows users to:

• Create responder profiles;
• Record response incidents and map incident locations;
• Assign responders to an incident roster;
• Design forms and surveys using custom and pre-built templates;
• Request information from responders by using forms and surveys; and
• View and analyze forms and survey responses.

The ERHMS framework provides recommendations for protecting emergency responders during small and large emergencies in any setting. NIOSH, along with partner federal agencies, developed the ERHMS framework following the collapse of the World Trade Center when the subsequent health problems experienced by responders illustrated an urgent need for improved health monitoring and surveillance of emergency responders.

Along with the launch of the ERHMS Info Manager software, NIOSH also developed a new landing page on its website for information related to emergency responder health monitoring and surveillance. From the new ERHMS web page, visitors will have easy access to:

• The ERHMS framework;
• Online training tools;
• The ERHMS Info Manager software, user manual, and training videos; and
• Additional resources.

ERHMS Info Manager is a free software platform developed by NIOSH to track and monitor emergency response and recovery worker activities before, during, and after their deployment to an incident site.

Visit the website to learn more and to download and install the ERHMS Info Manager software.