Objectives of the service
Pandemic responses such as COVID-19 require a coordinated regional, national and international response where key personnel may be required to operate in a fully distributed but individually isolated environment. Traditional approaches to major emergencies usually involve the setup and running of a local, national and international series of command and control centres where experts, emergency response commanders, medical management and Government personnel gather to coordinate actions and responses. This approach is highly inefficient and also doesn’t match the restrictions that are put in place for pandemic responses where physical distancing, travel and self-isolation is imposed on individuals.
An IT driven solution is required to provide the full functions of a command and control centre in a distributed way, where even greater support to the individuals is required due to lack of face to face interactions. This "Virtual C&C centre" will provide all the key services and supports to facilitate effective coordination, communication, decision making and action management for key pandemic response personnel.
This IT solution is also required to help the stake-holders in processing and managing the sheer amount of data involved in tracking the pandemic evolution and tracing the contacts of the people found infected.
Users and their needs
The expected users, i.e. general practitioners, national, regional and local health bodies, hospitals and first responders on the ground are represented by the “National Health Service” and the “Irish Centre for Emergency Management” in Ireland and by the “Istituto Nazionale Malattie Infettive Lazzaro Spallanzani” and “Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli” in Italy.
Their major needs are:
- Have all relevant information (e.g. current situation, key issues, priorities and actions) handled by a single and integrated system also providing virtual conference capabilities.
- Simplify the insertion / editing of alerts and notifications
- Facilitate and speed up the processing of the data involved in tracking the outbreaks evolution and tracing the contacts of the people found infected.
Service/ system concept
React 2 provides its end users with functions / capabilities like Virtual Information Boards, Task Tracking, Secure Video Conferencing, Common Operational Picture, Shared Whiteboard, Surge capacity, Automated Workflow and so on.
These functionalities are made available via a single integrated system, usually accessible via the normal communication infrastructures, i.e. Internet and mobile infrastructures.
Satellite communications are used when geographic restrictions, weather conditions or disasters might make the normal communication infrastructures unusable.
Space Added Value
Satellite communications are used when geographic restrictions, weather conditions or disasters might make the normal communication infrastructures unusable. Both in Ireland and Italy there will be:
- a fixed station (command and control centre – main hospital)
- a mobile station (deployed at the incident location e.g. camp hospital, on a Navy ship).
The used satellite services are “Avanti” and “Hylas” in Ireland and “Athena-Fidus” in Italy.
Current Status
The project is currently in the end user requirements definition phase:
- the major, high level end user requirements have been listed and confirmed by all partners;
- some software development has started to verify the overall end requirements feasibility and get more detailed input from the end user themselves.
The software components are currently being integrated in the overall system that will be used during the Pilot Demonstration Phase.
Prime Contractor(s)
