Disaster Management Program Wins Key industry Award for U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Battelle

March 12, 2007

 

Information sharing program recognized for improving interoperability and communications for emergency response

 

Washington, D.C.--The Disaster Management e-gov program won the Excellence.Gov Award recently for excellence in leveraging technology to enhance collaboration.

 

The Disaster Management program is designed to improve the nation's capability to combat disasters by enabling information sharing. It is managed by the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Interoperability and Compatibility with Battelle as the prime contractor responsible for system development and deployment.

 

The Disaster Management program is one of five programs, out of 115 entries, selected for the prestigious Excellence.Gov Award. The award is given out by the American Council of Technology's Industry Advisory Council to recognize achievements in the IT industry.

 

The overall program includes Disaster Management Interoperability Services (DMIS), the Open Platform for Emergency Networks (OPEN), and the Disaster Help enterprise portal (DHELP). DMIS is a web-based toolset for emergency operating centers that enables responders to share information with their colleagues. OPEN is an interoperability service coupled with shared messaging standards that enables disparate information systems to share information. DHELP is a publicly accessible collection of disaster information pulled from over 25 federal organizations as well as a suite of collaboration tools available for authorized responders to use. Together DMIS, OPEN, and DHELP provide the responder community and the public with a much improved capability to collaborate and interoperate, with the intention of making the nation a safer place to live.

 

Today, DMIS has more than 2,000 user groups in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, and other international locations.

 

"The DM program is a great example of government investment in technology that yields a significant improvement in the effectiveness of the nation's responder community," said David Kelly, Battelle's Vice-President for Information Technology Solutions. "Our staff, our teammates, and our government management team should all be proud of this award-but more importantly, proud of their contribution to public safety."

 

The Industry Advisory Council notes, "The Disaster Management tool is improving emergency response and recovery by using messaging standards that help responders manage incidents and securely exchange information in real time."

 

Battelle is the world's largest non-profit independent research and development organization, with 20,000 employees in more than 120 locations worldwide, including five national laboratories Battelle manages or co-manages for the U.S. Department of Energy. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Battelle conducts $3.8 billion in R&D annually through contract research, laboratory management, and technology commercialization. Battelle provides innovative solutions to some of the world's most important problems including global climate change, sustainable energy technologies, high performance materials, next generation healthcare diagnostics and therapeutics, and advanced security solutions for people, infrastructure, and the nation. Battelle has a long history of developing successful commercial products in collaboration with its clients, ranging from products to fight diabetes, cancer, and heart disease to the development of the office copier machine (Xerox). As a non-profit charitable trust with an eye toward the future, Battelle actively supports and promotes science and math education.

 

For more information, visit www.battelle.org or contact National Media Relations Manager Katy Delaney at (410) 306-8638 or at delaneyk@battelle.org