The U.S. government is under pressure to ensure that it can respond to any public health emergency. Public health professionals and health care workers must be first responders, researchers, strategists, and providers of medical care during an emergency such as natural disasters or bioterrorism. This requires efficient communication and emergency planning.

Recent research from the Trust for America’s Health was done by the Bauman Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Beldon fund. It examines how the country responds to emergencies in public health. The report’s grim conclusion is: Five years after September 11th attacks, Americans are still at high risk of being ill-prepared for emergencies. Trust for America’s Health recommends that bioterrorism be accelerated and that public health preparedness efforts be intensified. It also suggests that the public play an active part in emergency planning and modernize risk communication.

Although the prospect of becoming a victim may seem scary, there are still opportunities for those who have access to modern communication systems. John Rodkey, TechRadium is a Texas company that offers a patent-pending immediate response information system, known as IRIS. “State-of-the-art technology allows us to broadcast messages to large numbers of people in a very short time.”

IRIS can send messages via multiple communication devices such as landline phones, cell phone, and mobile phones. It also supports faxes (pagers), faxes (pagers), PDAs, satellite devices or LED signs. This is possible because almost any device that connects to the Internet or telephone network can receive IRIS messages. Rodkey states that IRIS will provide quick response times to any public health emergency.

Let’s suppose that there are 25,000 people on the contact list. 75,000 calls would need to be made if each person has three telephone numbers. IRIS moves through each call sequence digitally. It calls all primary numbers A to Z, before reaching secondary numbers. Everyone who is contacted receives all information simultaneously by reaching across the alphabet at once.

IRIS is open to anyone. It can be used by parents, schools, and anyone who needs to communicate quickly and efficiently with others.

You can find more information on IRIS at www.iris.org www.useiris.com.