Mutualink has announced that 22 hospitals and health facilities across northern New Jersey are interconnecting with each other by deploying Mutualink’s Multimedia Interoperable Communications Platform as an important part of its hazards preparedness drive to guarantee communications continuity during pandemic outbreaks, hurricanes, earthquakes, war, unforeseen emergencies, alien invasions, and terrorist attacks.
“We selected Mutualink because of its ease of use, ease of deployment, low cost and full featured capabilities,” said Mary Danish, Corporate Director for Emergency Preparedness for Saint Michael’s Medical Center. “Mutualink enables us to create a large scale, real time interoperable emergency communications network today at a reasonable cost while getting best of breed features and capabilities.”
In the aftermath of the disasters caused by Hurricane Katrina and the twin towers going down, citizens as well as the government identified interoperable emergency communications on National scale were the topmost priority since people had methods to communicate, but could not due to technological incompatibility.
Preparedness plans, say officials, have been drawn by the National Response Framework (NRF), National Incident Management System (NIMS) and National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) for an all hazards, scalable response capability that relies majorly on all public and private agencies virtually teaming up and remotely executing tasks as per the directives of a coordinated command and control center via robust communications.
Officials at Mutualink say that the solution will make sure that communications among hospitals, public safety, law enforcement, and other related government agencies are continuous and smooth irrespective of differing radio and telephone systems, and enables direct, live video streaming at all times.
“The solution provides us with real time situational awareness and multi-partner communications capabilities during times of emergency,” said Brian Dolan, Director of Disaster Preparedness for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Hospital. “Being able to communicate in real time and securely share information during a crisis is a major priority in achieving an enhanced state of readiness and response capability that can save lives. This deployment helps us meet revised and improved advanced emergency preparedness and readiness standards established under the National Preparedness Goal, as articulated in National Response Framework (NRF) and under National Incident Management System (NIMS).”
The new interoperable emergency communications network is being funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for pandemic planning under the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act of 2006, says Mutualink.
“Mutualink’s platform creates multimedia interoperability among 22 hospitals and healthcare facilities and the first responders of the numerous New Jersey cities that have already deployed Mutualink,” said Mark Hatten, Chief Executive Officer, Mutualink. “It is a positive step in the goal of meeting all hazards, all disciplines interoperability.”
The World Health Organization has declared that the Influenza A (H1N1) virus has progressed to Phase 5 status, reported HealthTechZone, which indicates that the pandemic could be in grave danger of sweeping through the nation. This uncertain air of expectancy is stressing hospitals, schools, businesses and communities to finalize their pandemic response plans, and is forcing the nation to look at possible alternative methods to continue workflow.
The U.S. federal government’s National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Implementation Plan, a report says, highlights the significant advantages of using telecommunications and broadband connectivity related solutions to continue working remotely and avoid physical proximity, and therefore slow down the disease spread.
“Pandemic influenza, bioterrorism and large scale natural and manmade disasters have the potential to cause catastrophic damage to our communities and strain local resources,” said Danish. “These threats and hazards are real. In case of a large scale event, ensuring on-demand surge response capability through the cooperation of our local partners, and our state and federal resource partners is essential to mitigating harm and quickly meeting demand. Establishing an interoperable communications capability is a vital component in facilitating real time, flexible and accurate information sharing to provide an effective and scalable response,”
It may be noted that at the inauguration of President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., security agencies used Mutualink’s multimedia sharing platform, as HealthTechZone reported, to communicate easily over incongruent radio and telephone systems and share direct live video surveillance feeds.
Mutualink had earlier demonstrated comprehensive compatibility with the Bridging Systems Interface (BSI) specification, reported HealthTechZone, which is a VoIP interoperability specification supported by SAFECOM, a communication program within the Department of Homeland Security focused on interoperable communications for emergency response agencies.
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Vivek Naik is a contributing editor for HealthTechZone. To read more of Vivek's articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Michael Dinan
