ENGINEERING

AUSTIN, TX -- The Texas Association of Local Health Officials (TALHO) today launched the Texas Health Alert Network (HAN), a statewide system to assist with early warning detection and prevention against infectious disease outbreaks and bioterrorism attacks. Texas HAN uses Dell PowerEdge(tm) servers to connect 64 health organizations across the state for the first time. In development since 1999, Texas HAN is among the nation's first statewide health alert networks and will eventually connect local hospitals, clinics and law enforcement agencies, providing coverage for 90 percent of the state's population. "About half of the organizations now connected to the network didn't have adequate Internet access prior to this project," said Michael Mastrangelo of the Texas HAN. "This network fills a large void in establishing the infrastructure needed for Texas health officials to communicate and collaborate with each other to better protect Texas citizens. Texas HAN marks a tremendous milestone in our state's homeland security efforts." The network allows local health officials to quickly disseminate information about symptoms and treatments across the state via e-mail, fax and, eventually, wireless devices such as cell phones, pagers and personal digital assistants. Texas HAN also allows health officials to rapidly communicate across the state to more quickly analyze data as well as detect and respond to an outbreak. "The Texas Department of Health and its public health partners are pioneers in establishing a high standard statewide health alert network," said David Clark, project officer for the National Health Alert Network for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "The collaboration between the Texas Department of Health and TALHO will provide a strong foundation for communications needed for bio-defense." Additionally, Texas HAN provides connectivity to a Web-based portal where health workers can find information and collaborate on bioterrorism and infectious disease preparedness and response planning. Each of the 64 sites is equipped with an average of a Dell PowerEdge 500SC server and five Dell Dimension(tm) desktops or Dell Latitude(tm) notebook computers. At the back-up communications centers, Dell PowerEdge servers are running Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and Oracle 9i that are used for the network's portal database and e-mail systems. Texas HAN is funded from a grant from the Texas Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board as well as the CDC through the Texas Department of Health.