Cell Podium has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Contract from the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (formerly the Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response).This program is focused on developing and evaluating mobile data protocols for terrorism preparedness and emergency response tools that supplement text messaging with multimedia.  Cell Podium will team up with the Office of Public Health Practice (OPHP) and the New Jersey Center for Public Health Preparedness (NJCPHP) of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Public Health (UMDNJ-SPH) to evaluate the utility and feasibility of ubiquitous mobile multimedia messaging for terrorism preparedness and emergency response.  The effort will design and evaluate MMS interoperability solutions, including those already in use at the Atlantic OSHA Training Center, and assess their utility in different terrorism preparedness and emergency response scenarios, including communications with field personnel, the public, and institutions.  Requirements assessment will be verified with local, state, and federal health and response agencies.  The effort will also design interfaces between mobile multimedia and existing social media providers and evaluate their ability to accelerate the propagation of time-critical information (e.g., viral media distribution on Twitter).

Among the efforts to protect these workers and the public that risk exposure to oil contamination is the offering of mobile-accessible oil spill response training. Cell Podium has developed six just-in-time training videos from the WETP Oil Spill Response Training Tool that give crucial and imperative safety training within one minute for each topic:

1. Heat Stress
2. Protect Yourself
3. Level D PPE

These videos are available in English and Spanish and are currently poster for free through our YouTube page, http://youtube.com/user/cellpodium, as an opportunity for additional training for workers in the field, especially those with limited experience with chemicals. Subscribe to our YouTube page to get the latest safety video updates.

JITTEIS was used in this exercise to broadcast emergency information to the safety officers at all the exercise venues, which was in turn forwarded to the workers under their supervision. During the exercise 93% of the safety officers (30 officers) completed registration successfully, with only seven participants registering through their email address. Over the course of the exercise 16 courses were broadcasted.  Results from the exercise are currently being assessed and will be used toward development of the JITTEIS.

From February 2-4, 2010, nearly 1,000 emergency responders from across the US convened in Philadelphia, PA alongside national public safety organizations and Federal agency hosts, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate at the 11st Annual Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness (TCIP) Conference and Expo. The public safety community learned about cutting-edge technology for use in prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. The event was co-hosted by the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Defense (DOD), and the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS Foundation (NAPSG Foundation) is a partner organization. This year’s conference included an informational session on DHS’s recently announced Virtual USA initiative, an effort supported by the NAPSG and which aids in advancing data interoperability and sharing for emergency responders. It also included sessions on prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery and the technological and training tools available for the emergency response community to effectively manage future hazards and incidents. The conference was an opportunity to directly meet with Federal agencies and members of the public safety community on current emergency response challenges and the brainstorming of potential solutions.

Cell Podium demonstrated its mobile multimedia broadcast service at the 2010 Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness Conference hosted by DHHS, DOD, and DOJ in Philadelphia. At their booth, Cell Podium staff described and demonstrated the commercial version of the Just-In-Time Training for Emergency Incidents System to emergency responders and heads of federal agencies.

The main purpose of the grant was to hire students to give them the opportunity to:

• Earn some money (and spend it)
• Learn in a professional environment
• Add value with their work

Cell Podium hired two college students from the New Jersey Institute of Technology- Carlos Paulino and Evanda Henry in addition to one temporary worker. These students are being trained for a continued career in a technology-driven world with the skills necessary for content development and business leadership. Because of this award one new high-tech job can be added for every five clients that subscribe to JITTEIS.

This grant is being used to enhance our technology by making it easier to use, more affordable, and accelerate its commercial deployment.

In addition a separate new tool was developed to automatically convert live multimedia into mobile formats. The ARRA grant has enabled Cell Podium to present their new technology at several shows and event. The students helped prepare for these events as well as being present during the events. Last but not least it was possible to develop several online courses for the safety of helpers of the current golf oil spill disasters. These courses were placed free on YouTube (www.youtube.com/cellpodium).

Worker Education and Training Program’s workshop Local, State and Federal Partnerships for Chemical Preparedness and Response was cosponsored by the Interstate Chemical Terrorism Workgroup (ICTW) and the City of Cincinnati. From April 29-May 1 WETP conducted an emergency response training exercise involving a hazardous chemical leak. The Worker Education and Training Program’s (WETP) spring workshop shared knowledge, materials, and resources for chemical and all-hazards preparedness. This was a hands-on event, involving federal, state and local responder organizations, including the FBI, NIOSH and EPA. During this meeting a new draft training tool was reviewed, which addresses the health and safety hazards that response and recovery workers would face following a chemical incident.

Click here to visit the website of this conference.

CellPodium had a significant role in this conference, using JITTEIS (JITMM) for just-in-time training and coordination/just-in-time content creation. The last day of the conference was dedicated to the simulation of a chemical incident, where JITTEIS was used to rapidly disseminate critical information to breakout response groups via cell phones. The videos included event alerts; safety, chemical threat, and PPE instructions; and live pictures and videos submitted from the incident site by the attendees. This exercise was held in the parking lot of the conference venue. Prior to the simulation exercise, CellPodium had a display area for the registration of the exercise participants. Prior to the execution of the scenario, Dr. Cesar Bandera made a presentation during the Advanced Training Technologies  Breakout session regarding the JITTEIS project.

Following is the scenario for the conference exercise:
- NIEHS realizes Outbreak/Incident
- NIEHS registers incident in JITTEIS (JITT-JITMM.)
- CellPodium creates multimedia message (0.5-1 hour)
- NIEHS selects training course and participant group
- CellPodium pushes message to participants
- Participants receive multimedia messages and instructions on their cell phones

During the live JITTEIS WETP stress test, thirteen courses were sent to each enrolled participant: seven previously authored and stored in the content management system and six provided by participants for immediate dissemination.  JITTEIS sent a total of 438 multimedia clips during the exercise .  All registered users were able to view the clips on their mobile devices, even when their signal coverage did not permit them to make or receive phone calls. The average time between JITTEIS sending content and users receiving it was 30 seconds.       

JITTEIS activity during 2009 WETP Spring Conference