Briefs

Dec 03, 2002 (from Post-Gazette).

Experimental software developed in Pittsburgh to detect evidence of a bioterror attack by monitoring activity in hospital emergency rooms is now being made available free to public health organizations across the country.

The computer program, called the RODS (Real-time Outbreak Disease Surveillance System), was developed at the BioMedical Security Institute, a collaboration between Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University.

Currently, RODS receives data about the volume of patients presenting with chief complaints of diarrhea, rash, respiratory illness and other key symptoms at 27 emergency departments in Pennsylvania. The system also has been operating in Utah since the Winter Olympics earlier this year.

The software is available through a download on the Internet at www.health.pitt.edu/rods. There is no charge, but a licensing agreement is required. The software is being made available in response to a high volume of inquiries about the system, said Dr. Michael Wagner, coordinator of the BioMedical Security Institute.

The hope is that RODS could detect a spike in symptoms that could tip off doctors to a bioterror incident or some other public health problem.

Here is the full story from Post-Gazette.