In 1776 the Continental Congress held a session In Philadelphia to elect Benjamin Franklin first Postmaster General of the United Colonies. Back then emergency communication consisted of word of mouth, bell ringing, and for long-distance communication - the Pony Express was the carrier of choice. The city now has a population of more than 1.5 million, and emergency response capabilities consisting of rapid, text-based communications.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) implemented the Roam Secure Alert Network™ (RSAN) health solution to power the PDPH Health Response Alert Network. In the event of a pandemic influenza outbreak or bio-terrorism event, PDPH’s HRAN system could be activated in seconds and provide Philadelphia Health Officials with real-time, two-way text-based communication with volunteers on medical reserve corps teams, as well as other key officials throughout the city. Alerts can now be sent to cell phones, e-mail, Blackberry/Treo/PDAs, and pagers. Alerts can also be initiated remotely and can include attachments with additional instructions telling volunteers where they are deployed in the case of an emergency.

Roam Secure’s solution offers public health officials a simple way for medical volunteers to maintain their personal information and to manage their various teams prior-to and during incidents. Fairfax County Public Health has been working with Roam Secure to power their Medical Reserve Alert Network (MRCAN) since February of 2004. The Fairfax MRCAN (see www.fairfaxmrc.org) was funded with grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services. Fairfax plans to have 13,000 volunteers who will be registered, credentialed and trained on their system. In addition, several major counties in the National Capital Region are expanding their existing Roam Secure systems to the public health community via the Health Alert Network and MRCAN functionality.