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UICDS™ keeps you better informed so you can make better decisions. UICDS is information sharing middleware for NIMS incident management that continuously receives and shares standardized data among many agencies during an incident. Your everyday application gets from UICDS exactly the data you need to use, visualize, process, improve, decide, and then share back through UICDS to keep everyone informed.
Because UICDS is middleware, there is no new user interface to learn, no cost to obtain it, and you retain complete control over your data. You get notified when an agency has provided new or updated incident data and you share your data with whom you want instantaneously and in the background without any disruption to your operation.
With UICDS you are better informed, your partners are better informed, and together you all make better response decisions.
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UICDS The Movie
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Get UICDS Free from the Department of Homeland Security
Apply to be a UICDS Pilot and get your own complete UICDS installation, including support, to improve your information sharing. Make your request now. |
Learn All About UICDS Interoperability Middleware in Just Two Minutes
Your time is valuable, so here it is in a nutshell.
UICDS is middleware to share information among applications used by all levels of government and critical infrastructure to manageincidents. UICDS has no end-user interface, so there is no training or new applications to buy.
You should care about UICDS if you manage emergencies or provide technologies to those who manage emergencies.
Click here for a two minute video introduction of UICDS from the UICDS.us website. |
Follow UICDS on LinkedIn
UICDS is now on LinkedIn, the premier business-related social networking site. The site is self-described as the "unofficial UICDS discussion group" among Technology Providers and End-Users. To join the discussion group,  |
| UICDS Contacts
General Information
uicds@dhs.gov
DHS S&T Program Manager Michael B. Smith Email Now DHS S&T Program Support Tomi` Finkle Email Now UICDS Project Manager Chip Mahoney Email Now UICDS Outreach Director James W. Morentz, Ph.D. Email Now |
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UICDS™ is a Trademark of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
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UICDS Update
The Department of Homeland Security Information Sharing Technology Program
In this issue ... |
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 UICDS Tutorial on Apple® iPad® UICDS Mobile App Example Code on September 29th Biweekly Call at Noon
This week's UICDS Tutorial and Biweekly Call will feature an early look at UICDS Example Code for Apple® iPhone® and iPad®.
Just as we have provided lots of example code for web application developers to download and make their own, we will be doing so for the latest version of mobile apps. We began with a release of example code for Android® phones in August. Now it is the turn for iPhone and iPad.
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UICDS Mobile App for Apple iPad
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Both mobile apps are derived from the same example code which is available for download by registered UICDS Technology Providers. The example code, as seen in the illustrations, provides the following capabilities:
- The base display is a map centered on your current location showing Incidents and Alerts
- Display list of Incidents and Alerts independently
- Display text description (contained in a UICDS Work Product) of any Incident or Alert
- Highlight an Incident or Alert shown on the map and see brief summary information in a pop-up box
- Display selected Incidents or Alerts on a map from the list
- Display polygon graphics associated with a CAP Alert on the map
- Display Open Geospatial Consortium standard Web Mapping Service map overlays associated with an Incident on the map
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iPhone Mobile App for UICDS
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On the call we also will provide more information on downloading the
example code and the upcoming availability of the UICDS Mobile App for iPhone and iPad on the Apple Apps Store.
And, of course, we always include our popular "open mic" session where you can make comments and ask the experts - and your colleagues - anything about anything.
To join the tutorial and our biweekly call:
Call 800-366-7242 and use code 735108 at noon ET.
The web collaboration environment details will be announced in the call reminder that will come to you on Thursday morning.
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Using UICDS to Share Data in the Real-time Decision Support System for Pandemic Response - UICDS Pilot is Topic in International Workshop on Healthcare Systems Engineering in Beijing, China
The Real-time Decision Support System (RTDSS) for Healthcare and Public Health Sector Protection project is a collaboration among several universities in Kentucky and Missouri. The goal of the project is to develop a decision support system to provide pandemic response staff decision support tools to assist them with managing the response.
The RTDSS consists of three primary components, the Pandemic Decision Support System (PanDSS), a Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) core, and third-party data sources.
The Pandemic Decision Support System (PanDSS). PanDSS is a web-based decision support system that encapsulates the proprietary decision models developed by our team. Some of these models include, but are not limited to, patient allocation and medical supply inventory allocation. The PanDSS is the core of the RTDSS where the majority of the model and application processing occur.
During a pandemic outbreak, hospitals will be overwhelmed by the patient surge demand. It is important to prepare response plans to react to a pandemic influenza outbreak which cannot be accomplished by hospitals individually, and require collaboration among hospitals both in planning and in response.
Complex interactions among hospital applications can be conducted through UICDS including multiple distributed applications that update a work product and notification services in which various systems are notified when changes to a work product have occurred, as shown in the accompanying figure.
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UICDS serves as the information sharing middleware between hospital applications and the Louisville pandemic models.
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The Patient Allocation Model employs optimization models to help decision makers address the patient and resource allocation issues faced by a multi-facility healthcare network in a medium term influenza outbreak. Based on these predictions, decision makers can determine if healthcare facilities need to increase medical capacity, or request additional capacity from the state or national stockpile, which is designed to supplement and re-supply healthcare facilities and state or local public health agencies in the event of an emergency.
The University of Louisville team that has been working with UICDS under the sponsorship of the National Institute for Hometown Security includes Robert Kelley, Aman Gupta, Anup Kumar, and Sunderesh Heragu. Rob Kelley will be presenting the results of their work to the First International Workshop on Healthcare Systems Engineering, October 10-12, in Beijing, China. Rob will be talking more about his UICDS Pilot efforts on a future UICDS Biweekly Call and Tutorial and we will be making his complete paper available to the UICDS Community in late October.
Rob can be contacted at rrkell01@louisville.edu
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UICDS Tutorial on Interoperability with IPAWS, the National Warning System, Featuring CAP Messaging, Now Available on UICDS Collaboration Portal at UICDS.us
In 2008, UICDS selected the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) as the basis for the UICDS Alert Work Product, the atomic unit of information sharing for applications to share information about their alerts through UICDS.
CAP is the data format selected by the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) to establish the national alerting standard. As a result, now that the latest version of IPAWS is currently operational, UICDS is introducing its interoperability with IPAWS.
On the last UICDS Biweekly Call and Tutorial, we demonstrated the integration of IPAWS CAP messaging with UICDS Alert Work Product distribution. We did that by involving several organizations that have developed integrations with IPAWS and with UICDS. We demonstrated their ability to share alerts between their independent applications through either IPAWS or UICDS.
By doing so, we illustrated what Gary Ham, the lead architect on the IPAWS-Open framework, calls the distinctive role of IPAWS as a "central aggregator" and UICDS as a "local application integrator" which work together to form a comprehensive sharing system.
Among the organizations participating in the interoperability demonstration were:
Buffalo Computer Graphics, Inc. Using DisasterLAN™, a NIMS-compliant web-based crisis management solution, alerts were provided to UICDS through IPAWS and from UICDS through IPAWS to DisasterLan. DisasterLAN is designed for use in any emergency operation center and provides an easy-to-use web interface based on the workflow requirements of the emergency management community that is now enabled with both IPAWS and UICDS connectivity.
CellCast Technologies, LLC. The CellCast product suite includes the EAGLE Alerts™ message processing system which was used to provide alerts to IPAWS and then on to UICDS. EAGLE specializes in the creation and distribution of emergency messages and informational messages for federal, state and local emergency management agencies, law enforcement, educational and corporate campuses, healthcare agencies, private user groups, etc.
Indiana University of Pennsylvania Research Institute. IUPRI demonstrated IPAWS-UICDS sharing through CIMS (Civil Support Team Information Management System) which has been specifically designed as a NIMS-compliant, all-hazard, tactical information system to manage CBRNE events through the provision of "digital battle board" capabilities.
New Jersey Institute of Technology and the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC). The NJIT effort to employ CAP messages is part of the Emergency Management and Business Continuity graduate degree program, a highly interdisciplinary degree designed to enhance critical skills and knowledge among private and public sector professionals. ARDEC is an internationally acknowledged hub for the advancement of armaments technology and engineering innovation. Together, they created CAP messages that went through UICDS and were exposed to subscribing applications.
If you missed the live presentation, you can tune into the UICDS Collaboration Portal at any time to hear this informative discussion. Go to www.UICDS.us and click on Login - Technology Providers for the whole set of UICDS Tutorial recordings or View this UICDS Tutorial now.
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UICDS Mobile App for Android Example Code Available for Download by Technology Providers
Just as we have provided lots of example code for web application developers to download and make their own, we now release the example code for Android phones.
Among the features included in this first release of UICDS Mobile Apps for Android are:
- Display list of Incidents
- Display list of Alerts
- Display text description (contained in a UICDS Work Product) of any Incident or Alert
- Display all Incidents or Alerts on a map
- Highlight an Incident or Alert shown on the map and see brief summary information in a pop-up box
- Display selected Incidents or Alerts on a map
- Display polygon graphics associated with a CAP Alert on the map
- Display Open Geospatial Consortium standard Web Mapping Service map overlays associated with an Incident on the map
Use your access credentials to download the Android Example Code.
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Tomcat™ Security Patch Now Available for UICDS
A security vulnerability was identified in Tomcat, the web server used in a UICDS installation. Tomcat released version 7.0.19 to improve security. In order to accommodate this Tomcat update, UICDS has released a patch that is now available for download. All the details are in the accompanying "Readme" file that downloads with the patch.
Use your UICDS access credentials to download the security patch.
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Become a UICDS Pilot - Yours from DHS
Tired of watching and want to get involved? Are you a government agency that knows you shoud share information better? Critical infrastructure owner/operator in need of coordination with governments? Technology provider who wants to better serve emergency management and response organizations?
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Use the UICDS Development Kit To Win Contracts that Require UICDS Compliance
Recently, the State of California and the State of West Virginia both issued requests for proposals that called for UICDS compliance as a condition of the contract. Feeling left behind?
Now there is a guide to what it means to "comply" with UICDS. Get the new UICDS Compliance Overview report to see the details. And you can see and listen to the UICDS Compliance Tutorial about compliance with UICDS v 1.1 on the UICDS Collaboration Portal. If this is you ... and you don't want to be excluded from future bids ... just answer a few questions to get the UICDS Development Kit and example code to build your UICDS Adapter today. Get started by clicking here. |
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