Fact Sheet: FirstWatch Early Warning Syndromic Surveillance (Biosurveillance) System

What it is: The FirstWatch system uses real-time information culled from critical public health data sources such as 9-1-1 calls, field data collection systems and hospital ED to detect trends indicating the possible outbreak of disease, illness or unusual patterns of injury either from natural causes or acts of terrorism. 

How it works: The FirstWatch system works by continuously scanning critical public health data sources and compares the symptoms and complaints reported by patients to historical data and to the symptoms identified with specified events. Spikes against defined patterns in a given area indicate suspicious trends.  When a significant spike occurs, the system automatically alerts officials via pager, e-mail, printed or faxed reports. 

Why FirstWatch is Important:

1. To date, syndromic surveillance systems have taken days or weeks to identify possible events, because they relied on data that came from reports generated by a variety of hospitals, labs or other institutions or sources well after patients have been treated.  It is time-consuming and complex to identify trends from data representing varied sources that usually have different ways of reporting the data.  FirstWatch monitors existing data sources in real-time, doesn't require any secondary data entry and includes automated analysis, alerting and GIS components which will alert clients when and where there are suspicious patterns.  
2. The FirstWatch system is able to aggregate for analysis, data from many different data sources onto a secure internet site, providing the potential for regional and even national surveillance.
3. While FirstWatch can provide early warning for bioterrorism, it can also be used for everyday monitoring and data gathering.  This has great potential benefits for public health, as officials are able to monitor trends involving environment events such as heat or cold waves, accidents (e.g. motor vehicle incidents or drowning) and naturally occurring disease, such as influenza, among other applications. 

Who Created FirstWatch:  Todd Stout, president of Stout Solutions, invented the FirstWatch system. Since 1998 Stout Solutions has been nationally recognized as a leading supplier of software and custom reports to the emergency dispatch community.  Its clients include many of the leading police, fire and EMS communication centers in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.  Stout began his career in public safety more than 20 years ago as a paramedic and then ambulance service manager.

FirstWatch is a registered trademark of Stout Solutions, LLC, which has patents pending on its technology and processes.

Downloadable Files
filetype	filename	description	uploaded by	date	size
	FW_Fact_Sheet	View the FirstWatch Fact Sheet	Kurt Mills	08/31/2004	899.25 Kb