Existing systems for tracking patients during mass casualty events rely on paper records and manual updates, which are labor intensive, introduce long delays, and risk losing or misreporting data. WIISARD is a wireless system that uses patient tags, responder devices, and tablets to automatically collect and share patient data in real-time. It provides incident commanders with maps, charts, and alerts to improve situational awareness. Since 2005, WIISARD has been tested in regional disaster drills and found to enhance safety, resource allocation, and planning over traditional paper-based methods. Future work aims to integrate additional data sources and improve data visualization.

1. Situational Awareness During Mass-Casualty Events:
Command and Control
Barry Demchak <bdemchak@ucsd.edu>, BA, Theodore C. Chan, MD,
William G. Griswold, PhD, Leslie Lenert, MD
California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, San Diego Division and
the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine.
Funding: National Library of Medicine
Existing Incident Command Systems
• Paper-based patient tallies
 Radio- or hand-carried
 Manually reviewed, summarized,
and posted
• Labor intensive
• Long latency
• High risk of loss
• Inconsistent data
• Low data flow and resolution
What is WIISARD?Clients
• Patient tracking, triage, & treatment
• Patient tags, First responder PDAs, &
Team leader tablet PCs
• 802.11b-enabled
• Disconnected operations
Network
• Low cost, Linux-based access points
• Scalable, self-organizing mesh network
• 802.11b (local), EVDO/GPRS/RTT
(remote)
• Self-locating (GPS)
Incident Command
• Geographical, status, and trend views
• Hazard detection and reporting
• Real-time updates
• 802.11b-enabled
• Disconnected operations
Database
• PostgreSQL-based
• Publish/subscribe distribution
• Supports disconnected/reconnected
clients
• Automatic partitioning and rejoining
WIISARD Command Center
• Leverages state-of-art
• Data collection devices
• Wireless communications
• Database services
• Multiple external data sources
• Designed by/for emergency professionals
and incident command
• Rolled out and tested in semi-annual
regional drills since 2005
Situational Awareness
• Role-tailored maps and charts, including
trends
• Real-time updating and correlating
• Tiled layout dynamically selectable
• Zoomable and scrollable
• Drill down for more detail
• Real-time geo-alerts
• Optimized for harsh lighting and viewing
conditions
• Role-based data quality visualizations
Outlook
• “Unique contributions to safety, resource
allocation, and strategic planning” –
Incident Commander, Del Mar Drill 2005
• Future improvements
• Additional data sources (weather, real-
time plume projection, floor plans,
diverse clients)
• Improved data density/readability
• Platform for advanced data quality
research