A prehospital crew working on a shooting victim radios the control facility for an available trauma center. Looking at a map of available centers, the mobile intensive care nurse at the control facility sees the crew is only a few miles from the nearest one. But what if they can't get there?

     ESRI, a Redlands, CA, company that develops mapping software applications, is working with Loma Linda University Medical Center to develop the Advanced Emergency Geographic Information System (AEGIS). Lea Lynch, MD, an attending physician in the LLUMC emergency department, says the system is already being used in the ED.

     "If there is a collision in between you and the closest hospital," says Lynch, "it may make more sense for you to go to the next-closest hospital." With AEGIS, she explains, an ambulance can be rerouted based on live traffic information, saving valuable time. "AEGIS shows specialties and up-to-date diversion status information for each hospital," Lynch says.

     It also shows weather and traffic information. The California Highway Patrol and California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) provide data feeds to the public via the Internet. CHP offers accident information, and Caltrans provides video from cameras monitoring freeway traffic. "What we do is harvest those feeds," says Anak Agung, a senior consultant with ESRI.

     Agung says AEGIS takes feeds showing ambulance and helicopter availability, traffic, and weather and hospital status, and portrays that data graphically using icons on a map. When a user needs to check highway traffic or look at hospital resources, he or she simply clicks on its icon. Users can pick which icons to display on the map, like adding layers over a base picture.

     Currently, AEGIS only works with a map viewer developed by ESRI. Eventually, says Agung, it will be usable on many common viewers. "The system will be a subscription service," he explains. "Users will have very little software to install." Information will be sent over the Internet to clients through GeoRSS, an emerging standard for encoding location as part of an RSS feed, disseminating it out to users for viewing on whatever map they like.

     Most viewers, says Agung, process geographical information in similar ways. GeoRSS feeds can be laid directly onto any map. The next generation of AEGIS, he explains, will be able to run on laptops and tablet PCs. Eventually, even mobile phones will be able to communicate with AEGIS.