Alabama Homeland Security Program Receives National Award

     Birmingham (AL) Regional Emergency Medical Services System (BREMSS) was recently selected as the winner of the Mitretek Innovations Award in Homeland Security. The award, which is a collaboration between Mitretek and the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, will be presented at the EMS EXPO in Las Vegas on September 27 by Mitretek's CEO/President, Dr. Lydia Thomas, and Ash Institute's Director, Gowher Rizvi.

     BREMSS operates a model homeland security program that serves as a regional trauma, stroke, divert and bio/chem terrorism-monitoring system to ensure patients are always routed to the most appropriate hospital based on capacity and capability to treat their emergency. The system uses LifeTrac, a state-of-the-art technology that directs the efforts of an EMS system to deal with ED, trauma center and stroke center availability, as well as hospital diversion. It also monitors for bio/chem events and assists in mass casualty incidents for the participating 14-hospital network.

     BREMSS was chosen out of nearly 100 applicants and five "very impressive" finalists, says Mitretek advisor Jim Rosebush.

     "Mitretek decided several years ago through its work in homeland security that there was a need to discover and replicate grassroots community initiatives that could be called 'best practices' for the purpose of highlighting them and replicating them in other communities around the country," says Rosebush. "The applicants for this award go through a robust review process, then reviewers are sent out to do site evaluations and the winner is chosen by a panel of distinguished individuals. The feeling of the judges this year was that BREMSS offers a program that could and should be replicated in every region of the country using the LifeTrac software and getting a commitment from regional hospitals and acute care centers."

     The BREMSS program is built around a wide-area computer network that connects multiple hospital emergency departments to exchange critical information, as well as to coordinate ambulance routing, air ambulance responses, and data collection and assessment that can aid in decisions about deployment of critical resources in case of a mass casualty incident.

     The Mitretek/Harvard award is already having an impact on the state of Alabama, says Rosebush. "According to BREMSS program director Joe Acker, it is uniting the public health community throughout the state, and a decision has been made to extend the program to northern Alabama," he says.

     For more information on BREMSS and the LifeTrac system, visit www.bremss.org