Community Reception Center Electronic Data Collection Tool (CRC eTool)
A radiation incident affecting a large population will require local response authorities to establish one or more population monitoring and decontamination facilities to assess people for exposure, contamination, and the need for decontamination or other medical follow-up. These facilities are known as community reception centers (CRCs).
The CRC eTool is designed to collect, analyze, visualize, and securely exchange population monitoring data, including demographics, radiation contamination measurements, radiation exposure assessment, and health outcomes. It is created using the Epi Info™ 7 platform and can be implemented using a local area network to include laptops, tablets, and cell phones. Data analysis, visualization, and transfer and exchange processes are also much more efficient once the data are collected electronically.
Epi Info™ is a free platform that is commonly used by public health professionals for data collection, statistical analysis, and data visualization. Epi Info™ is a public domain suite of interoperable software tools designed for the global community of public health practitioners and researchers. It provides for easy data entry form and database construction, a customized data entry experience, and data analyses with epidemiologic statistics, maps, and graphs for public health professionals who may lack an information technology background.