Table 1

Information needs of the emergency response team in New Jersey

Information requirement

Use

Number of people exposed

Control Measures

• Implementation of screening procedures

• Determination of amount of drugs/vaccine

• Deployment of drugs/vaccine/antidotes

Follow-up

• Number of people exposed

• People who are receiving chemoprophylaxis

• Centers providing follow up services and number of patients lost

• Loss of follow-up

Line listings

During the initial investigation

• Case finding

• Identification of people at risk

• People who did not report to work/school

• People admitted to hospitals that meet case definition

• People who did not attend screening programs

• People not receiving post exposure prophylaxis(PEP)

During PEP

• Dissemination of information such as screening test, changes in PEP protocols,

• Changes in facilities available for screening/treatment

• Changes in recommendations

• Case finding if the definition of exposed changes based on preliminary data

After the control measures are implemented

• Follow-up of adverse reactions

• Follow-up of special populations such as pregnant women and children

• Suspected cases under investigation

• Cases ruled out

• Cases ruled in

Clinical information

During Initial Investigation

• Location of suspected cases

• Location of confirmed cases

• Status of confirmatory test

• Clinical condition of cases

Follow-up

• Clinical status

• Disposition

Geographic Information Systems

Base Data

• Floor plan map linkable to databases

Case finding

• County/Zip code of exposed populations

• Hospital locations

• Driving directions to hospitals, operation centers, and affected facilities

Surveillance

• The number and location of emergency rooms

• Hospitals included in the surveillance system

• Sentinel sites

Environmental

• Distribution of the sampling

• Proportion of positive samples

• Extension of the contamination

Epidemiology

• Spatial relationship between cases and exposed population

• Identification of unexposed populations

• Identification of exposed population not included during the initial assessment

• Distribution of cases

• Distribution of deaths

• Geographic distribution patterns

Guidelines

Guidelines for treatments

• Frequently asked questions(FAQ) for the emergency response center

• FAQ for the press

• Recommendation for clinicians

• Guidelines for staff

• Elements of information necessary

• Software algorithms implemented in other locations

• Sensitivity and specificity of screening methods

Documentation

During the initial investigation

• Drafts for guidelines in different versions

• Drafts for paper forms to be used in all stages of the investigation

• Customized reports

Laboratory Results

During the case finding

• Number of samples in the laboratory

• Number of positive samples

• Results of confirmatory tests

• Laboratories involved

• Discrepancies between laboratories

Logistics

During the whole operation

• Team list

• Cell phones

• Email addresses

• Distribution by hotel, team, activities

• Emergency contact numbers

Zubieta et al. International Journal of Health Geographics 2003 2:8   doi:10.1186/1476-072X-2-8