Skip to Content

Hurricane Katrina
NLM and Disaster Management

NLM's involvement in disaster response and management began in the late 1960s, with the establishment of the Library's Specialized Information Services Division as the U.S. government focal point for information on toxic substances and environmental health. Since that time, SIS has developed services, including the Hazardous Substances DataBank, used in emergencies (notably in the Bhopal disaster in India) to provide information on appropriate methods for handling toxic substances and treating people exposed to them. Over the years, SIS has experimented with successive generations of technology to improve its ability to deliver information when and where needed by emergency responders.

After Hurricane Mitch in 1998, NLM began to focus specifically on disaster reduction and management information related to hurricanes and earthquakes in Central America, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. In the U.S., when Houston flooded in June 2001, NLM and the National Network of Libraries of Medicine had a live and generally successful test of systems and procedures that support rerouting of requests for service and assistance when a major node in the network (in this case the Regional Medical Library for the South Central Region at the Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center) is shut down by a natural disaster.

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, NLM increased the focus on use of information services and technology to enhance disaster response and management (defined to encompass all types of natural and manmade disasters) in its extramural and intramural activities. The Long Range Plan provides an opportunity to examine how NLM should contribute to enhanced U.S. ability to respond effectively to major disasters over the next decade.

Here is a brief summary of current NLM activities related to disaster information management, including actions taken in direct response to Hurricane Katrina.

I. DNA Identification of Victims - NLM's National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) collaborated with the National Institute of Justice to develop public domain software tools for use by the forensic DNA community in the U.S. to improve the speed and accuracy of DNA identification of victims. As will be explained in this Board meeting, NCBI assisted New York City with DNA identification of World Trade Center victims and will be providing assistance to the state of Louisiana in identifying Hurricane Katrina victims.

II. Extramural Support: Disaster Management Information Research - Despite its relatively small budget for extramural research, NLM has been influential in directing the attention of informatics researchers to disaster management issues and has funded early and highly praised work on advanced biosurveillance techniques.

A. Grant Programs - NLM has four grant programs that provide funding for applied research or system development to support information management to support information management during natural disasters or terrorist attacks, including one explicitly named Informatics for Disaster Management Grants: $275,000 in direct costs over a two year period. In this category, the funded projects have often focused on biosurveillance techniques, but applications are also being received that deal with mental health issues, triage among multiple hospitals, and other topics relevant to natural disasters.

Other grant programs that do/could support disaster management include: Biomedical Informatics Research Grants: The average research grant is 3 or 4 years at $350,000 per year direct costs. Relevant grants in this category test novel approaches for representing knowledge or providing decision support in real-time clinical settings that might be involved in disaster care. Belief based Network Reminder Systems that Learn. Wagner, Michael; U. Pitt

Knowledge Management & Applied Informatics Grants: Up to $150,000 direct costs per year for one, two or three years. These grants improve access to or management of health-related information, including deployment of access points and development of custom resources. Current example: Crisis Nursing Resource (CNR) Information System. Troy, Douglas U. Miami

IAIMS (Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems) Grants: There are 3 types of IAIMS grants, with awards ranging from $100,000 per year to $400,000 per year in direct costs. IAIMS grants focus on providing a full array of context-appropriate information for decisions and learning, bringing together data and knowledge from several organizations. Example of an IAIMS with complex networking of health information for a region: The Indiana IAIMS Initiative. Overhage, Marc U. Indiana

B. Research Contracts: In 2002, NLM's High Performance Computing and Communications Office solicited proposals for Scaleable Information Infrastructure projects to demonstrate the application of scaleable, network aware, wireless, GIS and identification technologies to a networked health environment in situations, including large-scale health emergencies, that can benefit from such technologies. Several of contracts awarded based on this solicitation are focused on disaster response and management. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/siiawards.html

III: Information Products and Services

A. WISER (Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders): This system addresses the need for access to integrated, critical chemical information quickly and conveniently on mobile devices, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), tablets, and field laptops. It provides information on 400 of the most hazardous chemicals and is extracted from the 4700 substances in NLM's Hazardous Substances Databank and includes useful features to help first responders to identify unknown substances. WISER is available for downloading to PDAs (Palm OS and Pocket PC) for use in the field and on the site of an accident. A standalone version is also available for downloading onto a Windows desktop/laptop, which is found on an increasing number of fire trucks and police cruisers. By request from the emergency responder community for use as a training tool, a web-based version of WISER will be available by mid-October 2005. A modified version of WISER On the WEB (WOW) will also be accessible from connected PDAs, such as the Blackberry. As of August 15, 2005, over 17,000 copies of the WISER software have been requested and downloaded from the WISER web site, http://wiser.nlm.nih.gov/.

WISER has been incorporated into disaster preparedness training curricula, such as the Baltimore County, MD. Hazmat Team training program, the Illinois Fire Service Institute, the Chicago Fire Department, the Fire Department Instructors Conference, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program. Next steps for WISER include addition of biological agents and radiation isotope data.

At the request of the Environmental Protection Agency, NLM provided 15 PDAs loaded with WISER for the EPA National Decontamination Team to take with them when they were deployed to New Orleans to assist with the response to Hurricane Katrina.

B. Radiation Emergency Medical Management system (REMM) – in development. SIS has recently partnered with the Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness (OPHEP) (through an interagency agreement) to develop, store, electronically publish, maintain, and continuously update a Radiation Emergency Medical Management system (REMM), and a backend supporting database.The end-product is intended to provide health care professionals immediate, up-to-date, as-complete-as-possible, evidence-based clinical information and guidelines to be used in the treatment of civilians involved in radiation incidents, including improvised nuclear device detonation, dispersion of radiation by various devices, and other mechanisms of exposure to radiation. The goal is for REMM to present optimized evaluation and response guidance (including algorithms) for the entire clinical continuum, from acute evaluation to long-term management, including linkage with epidemiological follow-up.

C. Web Information Resources: NLM has many Web information resources that provide information on disaster and emergency planning and management for consumers (e.g., MedlinePlus) and public and environmental health professionals. Library attempts to move quickly to create or highlight resources that are particularly relevant to unfolding events. Examples include a special page on Lingering Airborne hazards developed after the World Trade Center event, an interactive tutorial on anthrax, and most recently a new Enviro-Health Links page on Hurricane Katrina: Links to Health Information including toxicology and environmental health http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro/hurricane.html. NLM also supports the Web-based Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness http://www.phpreparedness.info/index.php, developed by the New York Academy of Medicine.

D. Services of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine – The unified 1-800 number for all eight Regional Medical Libraries and the DOCLINE automated document request system (which uses electronic journal holdings information for more than 3,200 libraries to route interlibrary loan requests efficiently) are both adaptable to emergencies that temporarily disable individual Regional Medical Libraries or other network member libraries. In such events, the ability to route requests to affected libraries is temporarily disabled and the requests are automatically directed to libraries that are still operating.

NLM and the NN/LM are actively engaged in developing plans for a more robust ability to assure uninterrupted health information services throughout the nation in the event of natural or manmade disasters. Competition for NN/LM contracts for 2006-2010 is currently underway and the statement of work (issued early in 2005) requires each Regional Medical Library to work with other libraries in creating a regional disaster plan. NLM is also developing a plan for service and collection backup in case of an onsite disaster.

E. Training for Health Sciences Librarians. NLM developed and co-sponsored a highly-rated training symposium, The Role of Information Services for Emergency Preparedness and Response, held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Medical Library Association in San Antonio in May 2005. The goal of the symposium was to increase understanding of the information needs and constraints of those involved in disaster preparedness and response and to describe cooperative strategies for getting information and training to the emergency responder community. The symposium included presentations from experts (including some involved in 9/11 response) about the information resources and services that need to be developed and promoted to strengthen public health planning and emergency preparedness.

IV: Backup for NLM's Online Databases and Services

NLM has long-standing procedures for backup of its authoritative databases. In recent years, the Library has established an offsite computer facility (on a different power grid and Internet access provider) to support uninterrupted service from NLM's key access and data creation systems. Permanent access to electronic information is probably best served by deposit in multiple archives under independent management in geographically dispersed locations. NCBI's development of the portable PubMed Central architecture supports this principle.

Last reviewed: 15 February 2007
Last updated: 13 October 2005
First published: 13 October 2005
Metadata| Permanence level: Permanent: Dynamic Content