Emergency Management Specifications use V3.0 of CIQ Specifications (xNL, xAL, and xPIL)

["Ram Kumar" <kumar.sydney@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

Emergency management during disasters (natural disasters (e.g. Cyclone, flooding, fire) and artifical
disasters (e.g. terrorism) is critical to save lives. Emergency Management TC is working on defining
specifications for this. This specification will play a significant role in saving lives around the world.

The goal of the EDXL (Emergency Data Exchange Language) project is to
facilitate emergency information  sharing and data exchange across the
local, state, tribal, national and non-governmental organizations of
different professions that provide emergency response and management
services. EDXL will accomplish this goal by focusing on the standardization
of specific messages (messaging interfaces) to facilitate emergency
communication and coordination particularly when more than one profession
or governmental jurisdiction is involved.

The primary purpose of the Emergency Data Exchange Language Resource
Messaging (EDXL_RM) Specification is to provide a set of standard formats
for XML emergency messages. These Resource Messages are specifically
designed as payloads of Emergency Data Exchange Language Distribution
Element- (EDXL_DE)-routed messages. Together EDXL_DE and EDXL_RM are
intended to expedite all activities associated with resources needed
to respond and adapt to emergency incidents. The Distribution Element
may be thought of as a "container". It provides the information to
route "payload" message sets (such as Alerts or Resource Messages),
by including key routing information such as distribution type,
geography, incident, and sender/recipient IDs.

In a disaster or emergency situation, there is a need for hospitals
to be able to communicate with each other, and with other members of the
emergency response community. The ability to exchange data in regard to
hospitals' bed availability, status, services, and capacity enables both
hospitals and other emergency agencies to respond to emergencies and
disaster situations with greater efficiency and speed. In particular,
it will allow emergency dispatchers and managers to make sound logistics
decisions - where to route victims, which hospitals have the ability to
provide the needed service. Many hospitals have expressed the need for,
and indeed are currently using, commercial or self- developed information
technology that allows them to publish this information to other hospitals in a
region, as well as EOCs, 9-1-1 centers, and EMS responders via a Web-based tool.
EDXL-HAVE (EDXL-Hostpital Availability) specifications enable this to happen.

v3.0 CIQ Specifications (xNL, xAL, and xPIL) are used by the above
specifications to manage party information that are involved in
the disaster. This is a great application of CIQ that will see
widespread adoption as part of this emergency management specs.

Regards,

Ram