On Tuesday, AtHoc announced that its Interactive Warning System (IWS) was successfully rolled out at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC). IWS provides crisis management teams with the ability to issue alerts over networks through a popup window to thousands of people during emergencies.
San Mateo, Calif.-based AtHoc, Inc. develops systems designed to deliver important communications when adverse events occur. IWS is a suite of tools that goes well beyond issuing alerts. IWSDuress allows personnel in the field to report emergencies with their mobile device and receive assistance. IWS Accountability allows management to know where personnel are, so they can be directed efficiently to respond to an incident. Other tools provide the ability to view an online map of an area affected by an unexpected event and generate reports.
AtHoc supports any combination of cloud configuration whether it’s private or public, or a combination of the two. This would be an attractive feature to any facility that needs scalability as its operations grow.
A look at the AtHoc website shows that the company has an impressive customer list including branches of the military, hospitals, government agencies and universities. Any facility that is large in scope and serves masses of people would be potential customers for the IWS suite.
Correctional facilities would make productive use of IWS for responding to inmate unrest and other security issues. Shopping malls, sporting venues, convention centers, hotels, apartments and senior care facilities would be able to use IWS in response to disasters and other unforeseen events.
Technological advances that made hardware cheaper and faster led to a proliferation of devices that can track a lot of information. This has had privacy advocates concerned about a Big Brother society, where every individual’s actions can be tracked.
IWS is an example of such technology being used for good. The ability to respond quickly to emergencies can save lives and limits the damaging effects of disasters and other adverse incidents.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
