If you are a first responder you are probably familiar with WISER which provides a broad range of information about hazardous materials. You may not be familiar with CHEMM-IST (Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management Intelligent Syndrome Tool) which is an online decision support tool to help you make rapid and competent medical treatment decisions in the field. The goals of this resource are to:
1) Enable first responders, first receivers, other healthcare providers, and planners to plan for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of mass-casualty incidents involving chemicals
2) Provide a comprehensive, user-friendly, web-based resource that is also downloadable in advance, so that it would be available during an event if the internet is not accessible
CHEMM-IST takes a unique approach. Instead of needing to memorize hundreds of chemicals and their effects and treatment, CHEMM-IST asks you a series of questions and tells you what syndrome the patient is most likely suffering from and the treatment options. The site is in beta testing and they are looking for some first responders to take a look and give them feedback. CHEMM-IST needs you!
CHEMM-IST was produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Office of Planning and Emergency Operations, in cooperation with the National Library of Medicine, Division of Specialized Information Services. I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Mark Kirk who is a medical toxicologist, on the faculty at the University of Virginia, and one of the original developers of the concept.
CHEMM-IST arose after Dr. Kirk worked for many years in the EMS field and worked closely with the Indianapolis Fire Department on how to respond better to chemical emergencies large and small. He found that working with syndrome (grouped symptoms) was a much easier and more effective way for the fire department to respond and treat patients. So instead of trying to identify a chemical you only need to identify the syndrome and that will lead you to treatment.
The online site is at http://chemm.nlm.nih.gov/chemmist.htm. You start by answering a set of questions.
Once you have gone through the questions the application tells you the most likely syndrome.
In this case the Pesticide Syndrome is most likely so you click on that syndrome for more information.
The Acute Patient Care Guidelines link takes you to treatment options. Links to other resources and information are also available.
This tool will help you recognize the correct syndrome and take appropriate action. The application has two primary uses:
1) Patient management in the field
2) Patient assessment, triage, and management training
Dr. Kirk and the CHEMM-IST team would like your feedback. Take a test drive and then let them know what you think. You can go to the Contact Us page and the email link to provide feedback (nlmchemm@mail.nih.gov).
