PHASER: Physiological Health Assessment System for emergency responders

Despite significant advances in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and enhanced tactics, line of duty deaths (LODD) and injuries due to cardiovascular events in the emergency responder community, specifically fire service, remain at an unacceptably high level each year. To address the tragic loss of life and often debilitating injuries that are too prevalent in the fire service, the Department of Homeland Security, Science and Technology Directorate, has created a Physiological Health Assessment System for Emergency Responders (PHASER) program. PHASER is charged to develop and deploy innovative technology solutions based on the fundamental medical understanding of risk factors to enhance health and safety of emergency responders. One of the outcomes of the program is a low-cost secure networked system — PHASER-Net — capable of remote physiological monitoring, risk profiling, risk mitigation and guidance of the individual emergency responders. The PHASER-Net system has been deployed at multiple fire departments across the country, as well as academic research laboratories for validation, testing and enhancement. From the days of initial deployments, the system proved vital by identifying individuals with high risk of cardiovascular events and providing targeted training guidance for risk mitigation and prevention.