The Center for Medical Interoperability (C4MI), supported by Cybernetica, has entered an agreement to develop a monitoring and surveillance system for personal protective equipment (PPE) with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the public health agency of the United States of America. The project is conducted as a public-private partnership called TOGETHER (Trust infrOmation exchanGe to achiEve healTH rEsource Readiness). TOGETHER for PPE Readiness allows for trusted data exchange between entities by utilising Cybernetica UXP technology in order to improve the ecosystem's ability to manage PPE inventory (masks, gloves, gowns, and other protective equipment).
"The immediate benefit of providing secure data exchange is the automated provision of nearly real-time data, which allows for a more efficient distribution of PPE inventory during surge demands - such as disease pandemics and other emergencies," explained Meril Vaht, Project Manager at Cybernetica. "The initial phase will be ongoing until September this year, during which the first participating sites will connect to UXP with more hospitals and entities added in the next phases," Vaht added.
Pandemic illnesses and large public health emergencies can lead to shortages of PPE as the manufacturers need time to increase production to meet elevated demand. TOGETHER for PPE Readiness aims to leverage C4MI’s Trust Platform that utilises Cybernetica UXP secure data exchange technology to share data regionally and nationally in order to better plan for emergencies, inform optimal inventories and enable PPE inventory comparisons among participating members, such as hospitals, coalitions and networks, for better emergency preparedness.
"We are excited to embark on this project with C4MI, our long-term strategic partner, to build capabilities that have a direct impact on large-scale emergency response, with our UXP technology as the vital foundation of the platform," said Oliver Väärtnõu, CEO of Cybernetica.
"While this current project is focused on PPE, C4MI fully intends to further develop the Trust Platform to support multiple use cases as well as other data exchange challenges its members and the rest of the healthcare industry face. The CDC has great vision in this regard, and Cybernetica’s experience in enterprise trusted data exchange is unparalleled." said Tommy Ragsdale, Senior Director of Trust Platform Services.
The Center for Medical Interoperability is a 501(c)(3) cooperative research and development lab led by health systems to simplify and advance data sharing among medical technologies and systems. The Center provides a
centralized, vendor-neutral approach to performing technical work that enables person-centered care, testing and certifying devices and systems, and promoting the adoption of scalable solutions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the public health agency of the United States. The CDC is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human
Services and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, visit https://www.cdc.gov/.