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.
U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, both Republicans, made the announcement yesterday during a news conference at the University of Pittsburgh.
The computer program, called the Real-time Outbreak Disease Surveillance System, was developed at the BioMedical Security Institute, a collaboration between Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University. President Bush visited Oakland in February to learn about the system, which has been funded through federal grants.
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.
RODS works by taking information entered by hospitals when patients register and using it to generate a graphic representation of how many patients are reporting various symptoms every five minutes.
During the week of Nov. 8-14, for example, the system received information on more than 16,000 patients who reported to Pennsylvania emergency rooms.
On Nov. 13, the system recorded that 12 out of the 2,800 emergency room patients across the state were reporting symptoms of food poisoning.
That same day, about 170 patients reported gastrointestinal symptoms.
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.
Christopher Snowbeck can be reached at csnowbeck@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2625.
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