OASIS Emergency Management TC
Enabling information exchange to advance incident preparedness and response to emergency situations
Elysa Jones, elysajones@yahoo.com, Chair
Rex Brooks, rexb@starbourne.com, Secretary
Table of Contents
- Announcements
- Overview
- Subcommittees
- TC Liaisons
- TC Tools and Approved Publications
- Technical Work Produced by the Committee
- Expository Work Produced by the Committee
- External Resources
- Mailing Lists and Comments
- Additional Information
On July 22, 2021, Elysa Jones, Chair of the Emergency Management Technical Committee (EMTC) participated in and gave a presentation on the work of the EMTC in OASIS to the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS (NAPSG) Foundation in their virtual PrepTech Talk titled “Innovations in Resource Management & Mutual Aid Technology.” The participants and presenters in this webinar discussed the latest developments in nationally available technology tools and standards that increase resource management preparedness and improve efficiencies in managing incidents.
You can access the recorded session from July 22, 2021 here. This page of the NAPSG website allows you to listen to the entire session either on that page or from YouTube through the link included on that page. If you prefer to listen to Elysa’s EMTC presentation, you have the controls to do that in the YouTube site if you use their controls to go to the timestamp of 50.05 / 1:14:10 within the webinar recording.
Reminder:
On 13-14 October 2021 from 13:00 to 17:15 CEST (Geneva time) each day, the 2021 CAP Implementation Workshop will be conducted as an online Webinar - Call-in instructions will be sent to all registered participants.
You can access the 2021 CAP Implementation Workshop Information flyer here.
On January 8, 2021, The OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee’s Common Alerting Protocol Subcommittee (EMTC EM-CAP SC) hosted the first of two Special Informal Zoom Meetings for Subject Matter Experts. These meetings were arranged to gather feedback on the Event Terms List that the CAP SC has been working on since Q4 of 2016.
You can access the recorded session from January 8, 2021 here
On January 15, 2021, The EMTC’s EM-CAP SC hosted the Second Special Informal Zoom Meeting for Subject Matter Experts to gather feedback on the Event Terms List.
You can access the recorded session from January 15, 2021 here
On 13-14 October 2021 from 13:00 to 17:15 CEST (Geneva time) each day, the 2021 CAP Implementation Workshop will be conducted as an online Webinar - Call-in instructions will be sent to all registered participants.
You can access the 2021 CAP Implementation Workshop Information flyer”> here.
From 28 September 2020 – 30 September 2020 the international 2020 CAP Implementation Workshop was held as a virtual event. The event was conducted as a Zoom webinar. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, this was the first CAP Workshop to be conducted as a virtual edition of the annual event.
You can access the 2020 CAP Implementation Workshop Report here.
You can access the List of Speakers here
You can access the List of Participants here.
It is worth noting this event had more than 800 registered attendees.
All presentations can be reached through the links provided within the programme.
Beginning with the increased spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. and the world, in the month of March 2020 and continuing through April and likely to stretch into the following months, the Emergency Management Technical Committee (EM TC) has increased its efforts to ensure awareness of the benefits of our Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) standards and specifications for stakeholders from various agencies such as
From November 15-20, 2019, the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) Annual Conference was conducted in Savannah, Georgia. The OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee (EMTC) provided a full day pre-conference training session on the EDXL suite of standards. While the EMTC has presented EDXL at sessions during the IAEM annual conference, this is the first time there has been pre-conference training event dedicated to the topic of data interoperability. This provided emergency managers an opportunity to learn about the standards that are available to exchange data for alert and warning, patient tracking, hospital availability, situational awareness, resource management and message distribution. The OASIS Emergency Member Section Steering Committee sponsored the event. Jacob Westfall and I presented at the full day session on Saturday Nov 16. It was attended by 10 persons from three countries (USA, Barbados, Saudi Arabia). Some were longtime emergency managers, one emergency management student and some first time IAEM attendees. All attendees stayed for the full day and stated they got out of the session what they had hoped for. We provided a full overview of the EDXL suite of standards, guiding principles, toolkit with details on the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), Hospital Availability Exchange (HAVE) and Tracking Emergency Patients) TEP specifications and their joint release with other international standards bodies (ITU and HL7). Lunch was provided as well as a morning and afternoon break.
In addition to the preconference workshop on EDXL, OASIS provided exhibit space during the conference. This was a good opportunity to meet with emergency managers, product and service providers as well as government entities interested in interoperable data standards.
From 28 September – 30 September 2020, the international 2020 CAP Implementation Workshop Programme here. You can access the List of Speakers here You can access the < List of Participants here. It is worth noting that the virtual event allowed as many as 400 visitors to access the presentations.>
We will post links tyo the presentations and any further information here.
From 16 October - 18 October 2019, the international CAP Workshop 2019 was held in Mexico City, Mexico. You can access the agenda and presentations here. You can access the Final Report here. The Report provides brief notes concerning each of the 22 presentations given at the Workshop, and the List of Speakers also links to each of their presentations. The List of Participants provides names and affiliation of the 81 participants from 16 countries.
Specifically, we are encouraging awareness and adoption of
On 28 January 2019 the OASIS Committee Specification Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) Hospital AVailability Exchange (HAVE) Version 2.0 Committee Specification 01 Proposed HL7® Informative Document 13 December 2018 was published. In addition, TC Administrator Chet Ensign posted the document on Linked-In for discussion. This is noteworthy because it is the first Joint Release of OASIS Open and Health Level Seven International.
From 31 October - 1 November 2018, the international CAP Workshop 2018 was held in Hong Kong, China. You can access the agenda and presentations here. You can access the Final Report here.
On 3 April 2018 the HL7 paper Healthcare IT Computable-Interoperability Strategy“Methodology to manage data-quality risk by standardizing data” In accordance with 21st Century Cures Act, TEFCA and USCDI was posted to the Documents repository of the EM Adoption TC.
On 22 March 2018 Best Practices for the Dissemination of Weather Warnings to the Public A Best Practice Statement of the American Meteorological Society(Adopted by the AMS Council 7 January 2018) was posted to the Documents repository of the EM Adoption TC.
From Dec 2017-April 2018 implementers of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) are invited to answer questions regarding the creation of an Event Terms List. For details, see Call for Comments which was extended through April.
Late February 2018 marked the signing of the 2017 Statement of Understanding (SOU) between OASIS and Health Level Seven (HL7).
On Jan 30 2018, HL7 Patient Administration Working Group approved joint release of the Hospital Availability Exchange (HAVE) standard which includes an appendix mapping to the HL7 data items. A full announcement from HL7 and OASIS for the joint release is anticipated 1Q2018.
On September 22, 2017 the first international EDXL Workshop was held in Rome. You can access the agenda and presentations here. You can access the Final Report here.
On September 20-21, 2017 the international CAP Workshop 2017 was held in Rome. You can access the programme and presentations here. You can access the Final Report here.
The video "Overview of EDXL Emergency Standards" is now available in both English and Italian. You can access the English version at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eoV5XwZVO8 and the Italian version at https://vimeo.com/234306686?utm_source=email&utm_medium=vimeo-cliptranscode-201504&utm_campaign=29220.
Mert Gencturk from SRDC Corp, a spin-off from the Middle East Technical University, Software Research and Development Center (METU-SRDC) discusses his work on the C2-SENSE Project, a project to a develop a profile-based Emergency Interoperability Framework that exposes the functionalities of C2 Systems, Sensor Systems and other emergency/crisis management systems. The framework uses the OASIS CAP, EDXL SitRep, EDXL RM, EDXL HAVE and EDXL TEP standards. C2-SENSE is a joint project of 8 partners from France (SAFRAN), Austria (AIT), Italy (LUTECH, REGOLA, Innova Puglia, Regione Puglia), Turkey (SRDC) and Poland (PIAP). Watch the full presentation here: https://youtu.be/lDwlAYsshN0: 17 July 2017
HL7 and OASIS Announce Joint Publication of Implementation Guide to Advance Emergency and Disaster Response; 20 Sept 2016 This Committee Note (OASIS) and Implementation Guide (HL7) is a bidirectional transformation specification between the OASIS message for Tracking of Emergency Patients and the HL7 message for the admit/discharge/transfer of patients in hospital administration systems.
On August 23-24, 2016 the international CAP Workshop 2016 was held in Bangkok, Thailand. You can access the presenters and presentations here. You can access the Final Report here.
On September 23-24, 2015 the international CAP Workshop was held in Rome. You can access the presentations here. You can access the Final Report here.
On 11 August 2015, the Emergency Management TC approved Emergency Data Exchange Language Situation Reporting (EDXL-SitRep)v1.0 as a Committee Specification Draft/Public Review Draft and arranged for the 60-Day public review.
On 15 October 2015 National Association of State Emergency Medical Service Officials (NASEMSO) signed a resolution calling for Completion and Implementation of a Data Standard for Tracking of Emergency Patients (TEP)
On 04 August 2015, the Emergency Management TC approved Emergency Data Exchange Language Tracking of Emergency Patients (EDXL-TEP) 1.1 as a Committee Specification Draft/Public Review Draft and arranged for the 30-Day Public Review.
On 13 January 2015, the Emergency Management TC approved Emergency Data Exchange Language Hospital AValability Exchange (EDXL-HAVE) 2.0 as a Committee Specification Draft/Public Review Draft and arranged for the 60-Day Public Review.
Visit the Emergency Management Technical Committee (EM-TC) Activities page for more current topics.
The EM-TC creates vendor-neutral and platform agnostic standards for organizations and agencies to more easily exchange emergency information. The EM-TC welcomes participation from members of the emergency management and response community, developers and implementers, and members of the public concerned with disaster management and response.
The Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) is a broad initiative to create an integrated framework for a wide range of emergency data exchange standards to support operations, logistics, planning and finance.
Overview links below are provided for completed OASIS standards only. Non-linked items are works in progress. For most recent versions of all technical work see Technical Work Produced by the Committee
EM-TC standard efforts include:
- EDXL Common Alerting Protocol (EDXL-CAP)
- EDXL Distribution Element (EDXL-DE)
- EDXL Hospital AVailability Exchange (EDXL-HAVE)
- EDXL Resource Messaging (EDXL-RM)
- EDXL Reference Information Model (EDXL-RIM)
- EDXL Situation Reporting (EDXL-SitRep)
- EDXL Tracking Emergency Patients (EDXL-TEP)
For more information, see the TC Charter and FAQ
- EM CAP Profiles SC
Designs, develops, and releases XML-based standards and specifications as CAP Profiles based on the CAP Standard. - EM CAP SC
Provides ongoing maintenance of the CAP standard and related work. - EM GIS SC
Ensures the proper use and integration of geographic standards in the development of EDXL standards. - EM HAVE SC
Researches, analyzes, recommends, and organizes currently available information on implementation challenges and comments regarding the EDXL-HAVE standard. - EM Infrastructure Framework SC
Produces a horizontal intellectual effort predicated on establishing a common set of EM infrastructure standards, regardless of originating industry and/or agency segment. In particular, it provides ongoing maintenance of the EDXL-DE standard and related work. - EM Messages and Notification SC
Addresses procedures and formats for exchanging new and updated information related to functions including public safety, emergency response and homeland security. In particular, it provides ongoing maintenance of the EDXL-RM and EDXL-SitRep standards and related work. - EM Reference Information Model SC
Creates the EDXL-RIM specification to provide a high-level, abstract, information model for the family of EDXL specifications. Provides guidance on extensions and constraints (profiles) and maintains Common Types, EDXL-CIQ and EDXL-GSF. - EM TEP SC
Develops the OASIS EDXL-Tracking of Emergency Patients (EDXL-TEP) messaging standard, which assists emergency responders, coordinators and management in the exchange of emergency patient and EMS tracking information, thus increasing the effectiveness of emergency medical management, patient tracking and care, and family notification. - EM TEC SC
Develops the OASIS EDXL-Tracking of Emergency Clients (EDXL-TEC) messaging standard to facilitate the tracking of evacuees and other displaced persons during emergencies, disasters, and routine day-to-day incidents, the transport of such emergency clients to shelters, and the repatriation and reunification of emergency clients with their families. - EM Adoption SC
The former EM Adoption SC has migrated to the OASIS Emergency Management Adoption TC
On January 1, 2015 Health Level Seven International and OASIS signed a Statement of Understanding formalizing a liaison agreement between the two organizations.
TC Tools and Approved Publications
- emergency emf Open Repo
- Issues Management (JIRA)
- OASIS Library for Approved Publications
- TC Wiki
- Version Control (SVN)
Technical Work Produced by the Committee
Developers please note: Internet searches may lead to earlier versions of schemas, which may cause confusion, if used as implementation directive.To ensure that you get the versions that correspond to the published standards, please retrieve them only from the following selection.
Expository Work Produced by the Committee
- Overview of EDXL Emergency Standards Video. The video is also available in Italian.
- Wiki for OASIS Emergency Services TC member collaboration
- CAP 1.0 Presentation (7/31/2004)
- CAP Fact Sheet (3/1/2004)
Although not produced by the OASIS Emergency Management TC, the following information offers useful insights into its work.
- 17 July 2017: Mert Gencturk from SRDC Corp, a spin-off from the Middle East Technical University, Software Research and Development Center (METU-SRDC) discusses his work on the C2-SENSE Project, a project to a develop a profile-based Emergency Interoperability Framework that exposes the functionalities of C2 Systems, Sensor Systems and other emergency/crisis management systems.
- Canadian CAP Profile
- Common Alerting Protocol References
- CAP Flyer:Getting Public Warnings to People Online
- CAP Implementations by Country
- Introduction to CAP: Training Video
English, English with Arabic Subtitles
10-min. Video - Filtered Alert Hub (prototype of WMO Alert Hub): Website, Opportunity Document Design Document
- CAP Workshops: 2018, Hong Kong 2017, Rome 2016, Bangkok 2015, Rome 2014, Negombo 2013, Geneva 2011, Geneva 2009, Geneva 2008, Geneva 2006, Geneva
- Common Alerting Protocols - Example Practices: CAP Elements , CAP Feeds
- Distinguishing High Priority Public Alerts: GDPC Guide for Distinguishing High Priority Public Warnings
- Regulations, Canada - Requirements of "broadcast immediately" (Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2011-438)
- Regulations, U.S. - "Imminent Threat Alert" criteria in United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), 47 CFR 10.400
- Common Alerting Protocol - File size constraints: Technical Advisory Note - Canada
- Hazards App, from the IFRC Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC)
- Google Tools for CAP Alerts and FeedsCAP Validator, Monitor CAP Feeds, CAP Alert Hub, CAP Alert Hub Publishers
- Google CAP Creator Freeware: Code, Guide
- Google Public Alerts:, Displayed in Google Maps
- International Register of Alerting Authorities
- Federation for Internet Alerts (FIA):Website, Public Warning Design Guidelines for FIA Messaging Draft Reference Service for FIA Messaging
- Overview of Cell Broadcast
- Task Analysis for Composing CAP Alert Message
- Templates for 20 Emergency Alert Situations (available in: Dutch, English, French, Papiamentu, Spanish)
- WMO Administrative Procedures for Registering WMO Alert Identifiers (TD No. 1556/PWS-20)
- WMO Guidelines for Implementation of CAP-Enabled Emergency Alerting (TD No. 1109/PWS-27), (available in: Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish)
- OASIS EDXL Standards LinkedIn Group
- EDXL Sharp
- Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)
- Customer Information Quality Specifications (CIQ) 3.0 [08 April 2008]
- XML Cover Pages: XML and Emergency Management
- CAP ITU Recommendation X.1303 Video
- EDXL Webinars
- Alerts, Warnings & Response to Emergencies (AWARE) Forum
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