Author: Elizabeth Jarrett, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
For most Americans, losing power during a storm is an inconvenience, but for those who rely on electrically powered durable medical equipment (DME), like oxygen concentrators or portable ventilators, electricity is a matter of life or death.
Thousands of people in the United States rely on electrically powered DME to meet their medical needs at home. In prolonged power outages, they often must seek help in shelters or emergency rooms to power the equipment or recharge the battery.
Today, ASPR issued a nationwide challenge, seeking ideas on a system that, in emergencies, can determine the location and status of life-sustaining DME and get help to users. With access to real-time information about the locations and remaining battery life during emergencies, communities could better meet the needs and possibly save lives of people who rely on DME.
We’re looking for your ideas on a system that automatically monitors and electronically communicates the status and location of these life sustaining devices. This information could help these individuals, their caregivers, first responders and emergency planners make better decisions when planning for and responding to a disaster.
The winning entry will be a system that can capture essential data from DME, including loss of power, power level, GPS location, time and date, battery life, and user identifying information. The system should be accessible to all patients who use DME in their homes and must securely send data to other secure information systems.
And we hope that this challenge spurs innovative ideas that can be developed into tools to help communities support DME users during emergencies.
Ideas will be evaluated by a panel of experts and judged by Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dr. Nicole Lurie. Advisors on the challenge include leaders from the design, device, venture, and government sectors. The person or team with the best idea could receive up to $5,000 from ASPR and may be invited to present the idea publicly.
For details and to register to participate in the Ideation Challenge, visit challenge.gov and search for this ASPR challenge. We can’t wait to hear about your ideas!
