We've made it into Issue 57 of the international Technical Rescue Magazine. Here's a snippet:

Communications and team management are drastically improved by providing a central information store that members can access from home, work, or their mobile handsets in the field. As a team enter their records, the software builds a profile of each rescuer,tracking their qualifications, experience, training hours, and skill-sets automatically. continue reading

You can read the entire piece, featuring a technical rescue unit in our press area.

DUBLIN, IRELAND - As part of its PSAR (Preventative Search and Rescue) initiative, Howth Coast Guard deployed 'Decisions for Heroes' in in April 2008 as a reporting and analytics tool that helps search and rescue teams to prevent accidents and emergencies by tracking call-out patterns.

Press Officer Fergus Cooney was recently interviewed in the Emergency Services Ireland magazine about Decisions For Heroes.

"We can log on from anywhere and input information like, for example, whether or not an incident is cliff-related. We can then look at how many incidents we have had at a particular spot over the last quarter, for example, and take action to prevent further accidents of incidents in that location." "The [software] allowed us to quickly identify days and times that were high-risk. We found that there tended to be more incidents on Sunday afternoons. What we then did was try to get crew members to do foot or boat patrols so we could prevent something before it happened or respond quickly. We are a voluntary operation so this approach helps us to plan and to use our resources effectively."

The full article is available in our Electronic Press Kit.

We continue to work with Howth Coast Guard on tools for PSAR campaign tracking. These tools will soon be made available to all accounts. If you or your team would like to contribute your methods to have them included, make contact support@decisionsforheroes.com

To get an account for your rescue team, request a free trial.

UPDATE (17th JAN): Satellite imagery of post-earthquake Port au Prince is now automatically available in D4H. There is no requirement to export your data. The imagery Is 50 cm color imagery taken from Digital Globe’s new Worldview 2 satellite.



HAITI - The country of Haiti has just experienced an earthquake with a severe catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake. The International Red Cross has stated that as many as 3 million people have been affected by the quake with as many as 100,000 deaths estimated within the first 24 hours. Decisions For Heroes is offering their life saving web-based rescue team management tool and support staff free to all teams responding for the duration of their mission. For more information, read our press release.

If your team is one of the 40+ international response teams travelling to respond to the ongoing rescue phase in Haiti you can configure your system to import satellite imagery taken since the earthquake to compare with images before. Google have provided a KML layer for the latest imagery, with everything you need to overlay your Decisions For Heroes data.

1. If you do not have it already, Download Google Earth.

2. Sign-in to your rescue teams Decisions For Heroes account.

3. Click [Activities]->[Incidents] and filter the date range for your export.

4. Click [Export To Google Earth], and open the KML file that is downloaded.

5. Download and open the ~10:27 EST 13th January 2010 Haiti Imagery Layer KML (provided by Google and GeoEye). This file contains data relevant to the crisis repsonse and will be updated as more information becomes available.

Using this imagery with Decisions For Heroes will allow easy-to-generate statistics that can be used to observe patterns and reduce further incidents in aftershocks in Haiti. With integrated mapping, response teams can generate heat maps of their incident areas and compare them to their training locations. With this data the team can now approach other organisations with real measurements to show where efforts should be located and public safety awareness focussed.

Decisions For Heroes is available to all rescue teams globally, and teams can get started online at www.decisionsforheroes.com. Please help us and share this on Facebook using the button below.

CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - When U.S. copywriter and editor Jane Mackay got lost in the woods, she had the skills and ability to document her emotions and experience accurately. It's rare rescue personnel ever get lost (that's why we're the ones on rescue teams!), so take this unique opportunity to get inside the head of the other side and understand what they are going through, their thought patterns, and their decisions.

Jane sent us her story.

"I can see your lights!" I yell, trying to keep hysteria out of my voice. "I can see your lights below me and to my right! Keep coming UP!" They do and at last, there they are. A dog leading a woman in camouflage wet weather gear, a man a few steps behind her. As they clamber wearily up the slope my friend exclaims, "Oh, you wonderful people!" and I shower them with effusive thanks.

It's Mendocino County Search and Rescue who find them this time. Congratualtions on a good find by China and Dustin. Read on...

Lost by Jane Mackay

MORECAMBE BAY, UK - Paul Calland is the Deputy Station Officer for Bay Search and Rescue (BSAR), another group of our amazing people.

BSAR provide support, dedicated equipment, specialist Hagglund BV206 all terrain amphibious vehicles and trained personnel to assist H.M. Coastguard, The Police, Mountain Rescue Teams and other Emergency Services on and around the very unique Morecambe Bay and South Lake District Area in the UK.

We spoke to Paul about how BSAR use Decisions For Heroes (D4H):

Talking about planning, availability, and communication.

"Bay Search and Rescue is a typical independent volunteer team; the crew all have 'day' jobs and time is very valuable. Both the Station Officer, Gary and myself as Deputy Station Officer live some way from our base, so D4H is ideal for ensuring we know what team members are available and that we can contact them quickly. However more important to us is the superb concise way that Training and Events etc can be planned in a team calendar, with weekly briefings by text to the team, and that all these and our Incidents can be efficiently documented from any PC where ever we are."

On RAF collaboration, mapping, and reporting.

"Within the first week of using D4H we had a call from the RAF wanting details and locations of previous incidents for their records. The fact that we could almost instantly send a detailed analysis and breakdown of these, with reports for each and location maps of our local hotspots was fantastic. Before D4H we would have been rooting through filing cabinets and taking photos of a map full of pins on the wall!"

Cumbria floods, paperwork, and information.

"In the recent Floods in Cumbria we were called out three times in two days. The third call was for our Hagglund ATERV (All Terrain Emergency Rescue Vehicle) on its truck to be blue light escorted straight to Cockermouth where the worst floods had taken place. Our role was to follow in after the initial boat crews, once the water levels were too low and the debris and underwater hazards too great for them to operate safely. Our ATERV can travel where boats and landrovers cannot, and allow us to evacuate up to 14-16 people at one time in a warm, dry, non-traumatising way (unlike boats and helicopters). We assisted numerous people and completed task after task from the Bronze Command Centre. All these were logged into D4H as we went along, which generated our incident report, which was printed at the click of a button - brilliant. I can safely say no one joins an SAR team to do paperwork. D4H makes the paperwork we have to do easy and the built in maps, grid refs, casualty reports etc provide all the report information anyone may ever need from us."

For more information, visit Bay Search and Rescue (BSAR).

FREE GIVEAWAY - We have a special gift today for 2 Irish rescue teams. Vodafone have very kindly sponsored 2 mobile broadband modems with 3 months free internet access for us to giveaway to two of you. This will allow you to access the internet at broadband speed from a laptop anywhere there is mobile phone signal. Perfect for Decisions For Heroes!

• We have 2 free Vodafone prepay mobile broadband modems to give away.


• Each comes with 3 months free broadband.


• The three months credit will be applied to the modem over three consecutive months and each month will include Internet access for one month with a 5GB download limit.


• The Prepay Mobile Broadband prize is for use on the Vodafone network and will not be transferred by Vodafone for use on another network.

You do NOT have to be a Decisions For Heroes customer to enter. As this prize is for Vodafone Ireland, this competition is only open to rescue teams in Ireland.

To enter, leave a comment below on this post with your name and rescue team and we will draw two winners on Friday 11th December! Easy.

Note: No details will be passed on to Vodafone except the name and email address of the winners for the sole purpose of being contacted to collect their prize.

We're testing new analysis of team response times with one of our large organisations. This allows teams to measure and trend their "Time-To-Mobile" (also known as Notice To Move or NTM) which is the time it takes from an Alert until you are Mobile enroute to the incident. This lets teams make sure they are responding within target response times.

When you add an incident, you now get 3 options.

Immediate Tasking - this is the typical setting for first response teams. Your team are going from station, home, or work and are trying to get their equipment or vehicles mobile to the incident as fast as is safely possible.

Pre-Tasked - this is the case when your team are put on alert that they will be required at a certain time. This might be waiting for somebody to get to a certain altitude on a mountain, for a ship to come into fuel range, or knowledge that you are required at a forest fire the next day. In this case the time-to-mobile is not important to the success of the response and we will not compare it against your targets.

Tasked While Mobile - in this case, your team were already mobile on a training exercise or returning to base. In this case your time-to-mobile will be almost zero, so we will not include it in your target responses.

While the response time targets, trending, and analysis are not available to everyone yet, we decided to switch on the data input side so you can begin categorisation. Please note, any past incidents can be edited if you'd like to back-date the tasking on them. We'll let you know once the response time analysis is live for everyone - please submit any requests on this topic to info@decisionsforheroes.com

A voluntary mountain rescue team NEWSAR in Wales have won the annual subscription to the life saving software Decisions For Heroes at the Emergency Services Show 2009 in Stoneleigh Park.

READ PRESS RELEASE



EMERGENCY SERVICES SHOW, UNITED KINGDOM (3rd December 2009) - Decisions For Heroes is a web application that saves lives. It does this by helping rescue teams record and analyse their rescue operations and training. North East Wales Search And Rescue (NEWSAR), part of Mountain Rescue England & Wales have won an annual subscription to the software as visitors to the Emergency Services Show 2009 in Stoneleigh Park, Coventry.

“We're delighted to use D4H to optimise our rescue operations” said Richard Dobson on announcement of the prize. As NEWSAR’s training officer, Richard can sign-in to the software before their training exercises and run a report on team attendance hours, getting a break-down of members skills requiring attention. Now he can determine what they trained in, who trained in it, and when they last practised a technique.



Easy-to-generate statistics can be used to observe patterns and reduce accidents in North East Wales. With integrated mapping, NEWSAR can generate heat maps of their callouts and compare them to their training locations. With this data the team can now approach other local organisations with real measurements to show where warning signs should be located and public safety awareness focussed.

NEWSAR are currently fundraising for £84,000 to replace a pair of old and increasingly unreliable Landrovers. These vehicles are the only way the team can get its equipment into the remote places where operations are often conducted.

View photo gallery from our stand at the show.

About NEWSAR:
NEWSAR is a completely voluntary organisation, operating on charitable donations. The team of around 40 volunteers answers calls from the Police and Ambulance service for assistance in locating, treating and evacuating people in trouble in rural, mountainous and sometimes more urban areas. The team has capabilities that complement the statutory emergency services with the ability to operate day and night in remote and hazardous terrain in almost all weathers. NEWSAR’s primary area covers a huge swathe of North Wales, from the coast down to mid Wales and from the Conwy valley across to the M6. The team can be called to incidents outside this area, supporting other teams in North Wales.

Visit their website http://www.newsar.org.uk

READ PRESS RELEASE

CAMBRIDGE, UK - In 142 days time, two British explorers Fran Middleton and Mustard Robley will cross 1800km of Greenland Icecap in an estimated 40 day unsupported expedition North Star 2010. They intend to man-haul sleds or ‘pulks’ with backcountry skis on to the top of the ice-cap and then switch to snow-kites and downhill skis to complete the crossing using as much wind power as possible. Tent, cooking equipment, gun, and food will all be contained in their pulks and towed behind as they ski.

Decisions For Heroes is the website sponsor of the expedition, and as we've tested on the ice-cap previously, we will be linking up the explorers Satellite Phone to D4H technology and tools. Not only does this make for a really interesting test of our capability - but we get to entertain all of you with exclusive live updates from the ice-cap over a 40 day emotional experience. Expect to hear lots about the expedition once they set off next Spring.

Our expedition t-shirt arrived today, and it's really great to see our logo up there with international brands like Rab and Osprey who have provided arctic equipment and clothing.



Would you like a personal postcard from Greenland? The lads will send a personal written Postcard to everyone who donates £10 or more to the expedition.

All donations to the expedition will be split for 50/50 between the expeditions and the Ali Rainback fund



Check out their website northstar2010.com for the latest news, expedition maps, and details.

Please share to your Facebook profile, thanks.

CAMBRIDGE, UK - Many teams using D4H are small local charities, supported entirely by public donations. We understand a core part of our service is helping teams to find the funding for D4H. So that got us thinking... Wouldn't it be wonderful if D4H could pay for itself? Even better, wouldn't it be amazing if it could raise twice that?

We've talked to some of our closest teams, and came up with a plan. Today we are launching the first beta trials of a D4H 'widget'. If switched on by a team account owner, the widget will publicly display the teams latest 5 incidents with map, annual stats and year-on-year variance.



So how can you create value for your team? We've included space at the bottom for you to enter whatever text and link you'd like. You might link it to your team web site, or even better how about you link it to a sponsor?

Does your team have a local supermarket, bar, supplier, or shop you give lots of regular business to? You may be suprised to find they are very willing to sponsor "something a little different". A single valued item like your "Rescue Analytics" to "help save more lives" might be it! We can supply a brochure for you to show them - and you can put a message and link about them on your public widget.

We don't set the price you charge them - it's up to you. They might fund you the exact amount you need, or they might fund you double - ask for what you need.



So where will the widget be shown? Anywhere! We give you a small piece of 'code' which can be copied and pasted into any website, blog, or forum. You can give the code out to all your team members, friends and family. You might even get it featured on a local news site or government portal. Eitherway, your sponsor will be happy for the great local exposure associated to a good cause.

The option to switch-on a team widget will appear in team accounts over the next few weeks once our beta period has ended. Join our fan page for the announcement.