March 19, 2003, WIAT, CBS 42
by A. Moseley

Birmingham, Ala. - There is a concern of possible attacks on American soil now that war [in Iraq] seems imminent. A local software company is playing a key role in helping the Birmingham area detect and defend against biological and chemical attacks.

The fear of retaliation with biological and chemical weapons is a major concern these days. But in this discrete office, Birmingham plays host to an early warning system for Homeland Security. Linked to hospitals in six counties, [LifeTrac,] software developed by Birmingham-based Forte, monitors patient intake and hospital status, looking for anything that could signal that a bio-chemical event has occurred. "The software has algorithms that looks at [patient and hospital status] information for unusual patterns that are very early indicators of unusual activities that hospitals individually may not notice, but as a group, can be a pattern or early indicator,” said Glenn Phillips, Forte Inc.

For example if more than three hospitals become flooded with patients and divert to nearby hospitals, the system alerts that an event may be happening. Staff will then call hospitals to see what type of problems they are experiencing and look for a connection. Because no one knows if, when or how an attack might occur, "the faster that people know there is a problem, the faster there can be a response, the faster the public can be notified that there's actions they need to take," said Phillips.

Glenn Phillips with Forte Inc. says there are similar programs under development around the country. [LifeTrac, though,] is the first of its kind and has been running in this area since last June.