By Clint Swett, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jun. 1--Back in early 2001, Daniel Desmond never anticipated the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks when his consulting company was developing an alert system for public health officials.
But as the 9/11 tragedy honed fears of further terrorist threats, it also raised the profile of his Sacramento-based company, Virtual Alert.
Within just a few months, Virtual Alert accelerated its efforts and produced a software package that allows public-health officials to swiftly warn their peers of a possible health emergency.
In just two years, the Sacramento-based company has sold its systems to more than 14 states as health and public-safety officials scramble for ways to share information on bioterrorism threats, disease outbreaks and other medical crises.
'We were just developing this as a concept when the 9/11 attacks hit,' said Desmond, the company's founder and executive director. 'Then we started getting phone calls. We realized then, we needed a product, not a concept.'
Virtual Alert software incorporates an exhaustive directory of emergency contact information compiled by state and local health officials for every jurisdiction in which it is sold.
So if, for example, a hospital in Oregon discovered a patient with measles, hospital workers could log onto the system and report the case to other Oregon hospitals, public health officials and state laboratories.
Using the directory, the system sends out alerts via phone messages, pagers, e-mail and other online systems until it confirms a response from every official to whom the alerts are directed.
If workers suspect something more sinister like smallpox or anthrax, law enforcement and Homeland Security officials also would be notified automatically.
So far, there appears to be plenty of enthusiasm for Virtual Alert's products, which cost about $145,000 per system, plus license fees for each user.
The privately held company, which employs 18 people at McClellan Park, had $6 million in revenue last year and expects to top $9 million in 2004. Its products are now in public health agencies that serve more than 35 percent of the nation's population, Desmond said.
One user is the Michigan Department of Public Health, which installed a system in early 2003.
'The system that we purchased is kind of a national model,' said William Colville, the department's health alert network coordinator. 'It's a wonderful concept because it reduces the complexity of things.'
The Michigan system received a real-world test one Sunday last February, Colville said, when a chemical spill in Sarnia, Ontario, sent pollutants down the St. Clair River into Michigan.
Working from his home computer, a Michigan health official sent a high-level alert to his peers in every community along the river, plus a lower-level alert to other public-health officials throughout the state, Colville said.
'With a few mouse clicks, we were able to alert 1,700 communities. It's a very sophisticated notification system,' he said.
Early sales of Virtual Alert software were driven by bioterrorism fears, particularly after the anthrax attacks in Washington, D.C., in late 2001.
But Desmond said other health issues now contribute to demand.
'Bioterrorism was the driver, but now it's things like West Nile virus, avian flu and SARS,' Desmond said. 'Now people realize they need this kind of public health infrastructure.'
Desmond envisions a web of communications so extensive that even school nurses or family practitioners will receive instantaneous alerts about health issues that affect their patients.
'Through the lessons of 9/11 we can improve overall public health using these systems,' he said.
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