What is real-time data surveillance?
As the name implies, real-time surveillance involves live analysis of data to identify patterns and trends as they emerge, rather than waiting days or weeks for conventional detection methods. Early detection allows earlier action to be taken, saving lives and protecting property.

What happens when a trend, pattern or geographic cluster is detected in the data?
FirstWatch automatically sends alerts to authorized, user-defined personnel via email, pager, SMS-text message or fax. Alerts can contain summary reports, charts, graphs, maps and other important or mission critical information.

Why use 9-1-1 and public safety data?
Since a very early age, more than 300,000,000 people across North America have been educated to call 9-1-1 for help in life-threatening or health-related emergencies. With 9-1-1 data, we know: What happened; Where it happened; When it happened; Who was affected; What Public Safety resources are required – all typically within a few minutes of the first call to 9-1-1. To learn more about the Benefits of 9-1-1 Data (click here). Using FirstWatch to analyze 9-1-1 Communication Centers call data (calls for Police, Fire and EMS) provides Public Safety, Public Health and Homeland Security teams with the ability to be aware of situations and early indications of potentially harmful trends, patterns or clusters of occurrences that could threaten citizens or First Responders. Unlike conventional health surveillance data systems, public safety data systems for law enforcement, fire and emergency medical services are exceptionally time-sensitive with systematically gathered information such as medical symptoms, acuity and precise geographic locations of incidents. Additionally 9-1-1 systems typically cover large geographic and metro areas enhancing the value of the analysis by providing a large catchment area. To learn more about the Top 10 reasons for using 9-1-1 data for Health Surveillance (click here). FirstWatch is a non-database specific data analysis and surveillance tool and 9-1-1 data is just one of the systems we integrate with. Other data systems FirstWatch integrates with include: hospital emergency department, lab, pharmacy, poison control and paramedic field report data, all of which can be monitored in real-time.
  

Aren't 9-1-1 Systems Limited to Single Cities or Counties?
One of the biggest challenges facing emergency responders in the U.S. is the so-called "stovepipe effect," in which one agency or city is unable to share data with others. FirstWatch overcomes this by automatically aggregating data across city, county or state lines for a true analysis of regional or even national trends. FirstWatch analyzes more than 25,000 incidents every day, that's about 10,000,000 new incidents annually from across the USA and Canada. FirstWatch is the largest aggregated international database of its kind.

How long has it been in use?
FirstWatch technology was first installed in Kansas City, Mo., in 1999. Today, the FirstWatch network protects more than 72,000,000 people in a growing number of communities in 29 states & provinces across the United States and Canada.

Does it really work?
FirstWatch has successfully alerted officials to a number of different threats, including the 2009 H1N1 pandemic occurrences across the US & Canada, as well as early identification of emerging influenza outbreaks in Texas, Virginia and Oklahoma in 2003. The severe Ice Storms and CO poisoning cases were mitigated in a number of communities around the US via the usage of FirstWatch, combined with proactive Public Service announcements over broadcast media. FirstWatch detected geographic patterns of motor vehicle property crimes in one Texas community and aided-in the arrest of the ring behind those crimes. FirstWatch also assisted investigators to identify and re-arrest a career criminal in Iowa. During the California wildfires in 2003 and 2007, San Diego officials used FirstWatch extensively to track geographic spikes in respiratory symptoms and redeploy EMS resources to areas of the city most affected by smoke plumes. FirstWatch has also alerted public health and safety officials of a serious food poisoning event in the Florida Panhandle. To learn more about real-world FirstWatch Case Studies (click here). To read some of the FirstWatch success stories covered by the media (click here).

What data sources does FirstWatch interface with?
Click this link for complete listing of data sources.
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Is FirstWatch software eligible for grant funding?
Most agencies have deployed FirstWatch using grant monies. The Responder Knowledge Base (RKB) is a great information resource (that includes FirstWatch). To learn more about (RKB) (click here). To date FirstWatch customers have used Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Grants from the following programs; State Homeland Security Grants (SHSG), Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) and Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) as well as HHS Grants from; CDC, CDC-BT, CDC-PHER (PHEP) ASPR and HRSA, in addition to other homeland security programs that could offer regional collaborations with your Law Enforcement, Fire, EMS, Emergency Preparedness, Emergency Management, Bioterrorism and Public Health Epidemiology teams. To learn more about Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Grant Programs at the Federal, State & Local level (click here). You are also welcome to contact FirstWatch to learn more.