Sahana Meetup with Tom Worthington at Virtusa, Sri Lanka

Sahana, as a reputed Disaster Management project, has the basic functionality to support many different emergency response paradigms. This was demonstrated comprehensively at an interesting meetup conducted in Sri Lanka recently. Sahana Meetup FlyerThe event was conducted with the presence of Chamindra De Silva, who is a Director of the Sahana Software Foundation, and Tom Worthington, a Member of the SSF and a juggernaut in the field of Computer Science, on the 7th of May 2013. The event was hosted by Virtusa (Pvt) Ltd at their premises.

SSF Member Tom Worthington addresses the Sahana Meetup in Colombo
SSF Member Tom Worthington addresses the Sahana Meeting in Colombo

A large number of participants attended the discussion, including medical representatives from the Epidemiology Unit of Sri Lanka and the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, as well as professionals from the Computer Science domain.

Attendees at the Sahana Meetup in Colombo
Attendees at the Sahana Meetup in Colombo

It was  a unique event as the discussion revolved around ‘Using Mobile and Web for an Influenza Pandemic response‘ with focus on using Sahana’s products as the platform for building an effective Epidemic/Pandemic Management System. Some of the most exciting ideas that were generated were:

  • Dynamic heatmaps based on Sahana’s situation maps to show the spread of a particular disease.
  • Capturing symptoms through a General Practitioner’s mobile device and syncing with the system using the web service layers in Sahana’s products.
  • Outbreak alerts to be sent to concerned parties using alerting mechanisms built in to Sahana products.

The ideas above demonstrate how Sahana could be theoretically applied not only for emergency response for natural disaster situations, but for health-related emergencies such as epidemics and pandemics as well. Many ideas were generated and shelved for further discussions which are going on to this day. A great deal of interest was generated as we had representatives from various domains who are well-versed in the application of computer systems to alleviate major issues faced by humanity.

Our sincerest thanks goes out to all who assisted in organizing the event, and to Tom for gracing us with his presence.

Meetup Organizers Ramindu Deshapriya and Chamindra de Silva with Tom Worthington
Meetup Organizers Ramindu Deshapriya and Chamindra de Silva with Tom Worthington
Sahana Member and Meetup Organizer Ramindu Deshapriya
Sahana Member and Meetup Organizer Ramindu Deshapriya
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SSF Director and Meetup Organizer Chamindra de Silva

 

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