Category Archives: Best Practices

When "just-in-time" ordering is actually too late

HAZMAT Class 7 Radioactive U.S. DOT

Irwin Redlener has pointed out that, in the event of a serious influenza outbreak – “pandemic” – which means that the high incidence of a given illness is greater than normal not only in one community (an epidemic) – but in a wider area than would normally be expected – we would be in sudden need of many more mechanical ventilators ((These ventilators are descendants of the “Iron Lung” and the 1928 “Drinker respirator.”  See Wikipedia entry for “Mechanical Ventilator.”)) than are normally needed.

For instance, one credible – but not worst-case – scenario of avian influenza would leave New York State short 50,000 ventilators, and another with a nationwide shortfall of 700,000. The International Business Times has reported that a physician on the faculty at Stanford has developed a high-quality, low-cost ventilator.

The low-end model, called OneBreath, was designed by a team of researchers led by Matthew Callaghan, MD, at Stanford Biodesign, a training incubator in medical technology that brings together multidisciplinary teams of medical, engineering, law and business school students to address unmet medical needs with innovative approaches.

Callaghan says that the idea struck him first at a planning meeting at a hospital that was trying to formalize criteria to decide which type of patients would receive life support from the limited number of ventilators in the hospital should a scenario arise when emergency demand outstrips supply. Later, an alarming piece of statistics – that the United States would fall short of 700,000 ventilators in the event of a moderate-to-severe influenza pandemic – triggered the thought of commercialization of the innovation.   Continue reading →

Second Officer Says He Brought Fort Hood Gunman Down – NYTimes.com

At the risk of seeming insufficiently cynical, I’m not sure that I understand the change in accounts from the initial (female officer, wounded, shoots shooter) to later (both wounded officer and second officer shoot, second officer’s shots may have been what dropped him). Maybe Sgt. Munley didn’t know that Sgt. Todd arrived on the scene. We’re talking about a live gun battle, not a choreographed scene in an action movie. Things happen real fast. One second you’re doing nothing out of the ordinary, the next second you’re shot. In the case of Sgts Munley and Todd, one second they arrived on the scene, the next second they were shot at, the next second they were running. Hasan allegedly chased and shot Munley, she shot back, Todd showed up from around a corner, shot at Hasan. See

James C. McKinley’s careful account in the The New York Times , Second Officer Says He Brought Fort Hood Gunman Down – NYTimes.com.

…. the initial story of how she and the accused gunman went down in an exchange of gunfire now appears to be inaccurate.

Another officer, Senior Sgt. Mark Todd, 42, said in an interview Thursday that he fired the shots that brought down the gunman after Sergeant Munley was seriously wounded. A witness confirmed Sergeant Todd’s account.

In the interview, Sergeant Todd said he and Sergeant Munley had pulled up to the scene in separate cars at the same time. He said they began running up a small hill toward the building that held the processing center where unarmed soldiers reported for check-ups and vaccinations before deployment. The gunman was already outside, Sergeant Todd recalled.

Continue reading →

Daniel Bauen. "Instructables" – and the symbiosis of art and engineering

Given our cultural separations – “artists” in one place – “engineers” another – many of us – I’m guilty of this frequently – we forget how intertwined, and sometimes indistinguishable they are. Rather than make the general argument, check out Daniel Bauen, a young Atlanta-based maker and designer of things. You can look at his resume – and some brilliant pieces of work. If anyone thinks they can draw bright lines between the art and the engineering, we might have an interesting discussion. What’s beyond question is that he’s doing marvelous work. Beautiful, practical – and some so fun that I’m tempted to say that he’s a toymaker – who, in order to make what he makes – became an engineerand an artist in the process.

A motorized moving shade system for buildings – that is, roof-mounted solar panels move automatically in order to maximize shade and solar collection: (pictured left); A solar rock spinner – solar-powered when none one feels like pushing it around;

Bauen also – as a student – participated in the design of two bood-drawing devices one for pediatric and one for diabetics, designed to alleviate, if not  eliminate the pain of blood drawing.

There’s more at Daniel Bauen’a personal site and even more at his other site-  Engineerable. Continue reading →

E.U. countries discuss cross-border disaster relief

According to the website Insignia of the German THW of the THW (Technische Hilfswerk,or “Federal Agency for Technical Relief”), a recent conference continued what appears to be an ongoing discussion about cross-border cooperation:

Cooperation among civil protection organisations in the European Union (EU) was one of the key topics at the “Desaster [sic] Management 2008″ symposium in Schweinfurt last weekend. Dr. Manfred Schmidt, Head of the Department for Crisis Management and Protection of the Population at the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Dr. Peter Billing from the EU Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), and THW representatives spoke about the integration of the THW into the EU ‘Community Mechanism’.

Using past intervention missions as examples, Dr. Billing from the Civil Protection Unit at the European Commission illustrated the quality of European cooperation. Dr. Schmidt, who is the departmental head at the Interior Ministry responsible for the THW, went into more detail in his talk about the German contribution to cross-border disaster relief: an important part of this is based on the competencies at the THW. Representatives of the THW management held two lectures on the topics “The THW within the European Community Mechanism” and “Training EU Experts”, explaining the THW’s international work to the congress participants.

Quality of European cooperation, from the THW English-language website.

One doesn’t get the sense that this is a controversial discussion. The THW has assisted other countries, including France, in recent years, and this year has had teams in Cyprus, Myanmar, and China. And it’s only one of a number of German disaster relief organizations.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Germany’s population will be 82.3 million as of July 2008. For that population, Germany has 1,383,730 firefighters, mostly volunteers. The THW – which can be an alternative to compulsory military service, has 800,000 active volunteers, and about 800 in full-time administrative roles. And their organizational scheme is:

The main type of THW unit (about two out of three) is one of two Bergungsgruppe (1st and 2nd Rescue Groups), equipped with heavy tools like hydraulic cutting devices, chain saws, and pneumatic hammers.

The Fachgruppen (Technical Units) include:

* Infrastruktur (Infrastructure),

* Räumen (Debris Clearance),

* Sprengen (Demolition/Blasting),

* Elektroversorgung (Electricity Supply),

* Beleuchtung (Illumination),

* Wasserschaden / Pumpen (Water Damage / Pumps),

* Wassergefahren (Water Hazards),

* Logistik (Logistics),

* Ölschaden (Oil Pollution),

* Trinkwasserversorgung (Water Supply and Treatment),

* Führung und Kommunikation (Command, Control and Communication), and

* Ortung (Search and Detection).

And that’s not all; they’ve got four rapid-deployment (six-hour) SAR teams ready for foreign assignments, and five foreign assignment water-purification teams.

During Katrina, 89 German volunteers came to the United States to assist in levee repair. Loren Cobb of The Quaker Economist published this 2005 piece on the curious lack of attention by United States domestic media.