At a health IT conference on Thursday, Department of Homeland Security officials said that local communities need more IT to respond to public health emergencies, Government Health IT reports.
Jon Krohmer -- DHS' acting assistant secretary for health affairs and chief medical officer -- called for more tools and increased communication between federal, state, tribal and local officials.
Maribeth Love -- deputy director of HHS' office of preparedness and emergency operations -- said there are significant IT problems in local emergency information management.
She said, "We have serious health communications and IT infrastructure issues to deal with."
Efforts To Boost Emergency Preparedness
Love said her office is working to conduct a "gap analysis" so the federal government can identify what a local area needs after an incident before federal responders arrive.
Meanwhile, DHS and states are working to improve health care responder verification systems, Krohmer said.
Krohmer added that DHS will be meeting this week with representatives from the incoming Obama administration "to make sure they understand not only the capabilities that currently exist, but the continuing needs that we have."
The conference was hosted by the Bethesda, Md., chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (Foxhall, Government Health IT, 11/14).