NORWALK, Conn. – Defentect announced today that it has been chosen by Washington Hospital Center to install a radiation detection pilot in strategic portal locations. Known for Project ER One and its commitment to advanced emergency preparedness, the hospital is home to large nuclear medicine and cancer treatment facilities. As a medical community frontrunner, the Hospital Center is preparing for the unthinkable, but very real possibility of a radiological event in the nation’s capital.

Defentect’s solution will monitor for the ingress of radiologically contaminated patients as well as the illicit egress of on-premise radiological materials used to treat patients. Unique to the pilot is Defentect’s DM3(TM) intelligent threat awareness software, which manages, monitors and communicates messages from radiological sensors to an incident command center as well as to PDAs, cellphones or pagers. Defentect enables first responders to act quickly. Also unique are Defentect’s Gammatect Plus(TM) sensors which, set in ‘patient mode,’ discriminate for medically treated individuals, thereby avoiding innocent alarms.

When threat-level gamma rays from dirty bomb components impact its systems, Defentect notifies a designated administrative chain and responders. DM3(TM) helps security personnel respond more effectively to radiation alerts by integrating radiological status information with IP video surveillance and access control systems. Upon alarm, Defentect DM3(TM) sends information to responders’ mobile devices, video surveillance and other systems critical to implementing standard procedures such as those specified under NRC orders. DM3(TM) proprietary software is sensor agnostic and can be tied to a variety of threat sensors, including chemical, biological, nuclear and explosives.

“We’re extending our preparedness to anticipate a high risk radiological situation,” said Susan E. Eckert, Director of the Institute for Innovation and Nursing Readiness, Washington Hospital Center. “We decided to trial the Defentect system for its messaging and isotope discrimination features. The solutions can be fine-tuned to avoid innocent-positive alarms caused by low-level radiation emitted from medical treatments or naturally occurring radiation—inherent in hospital settings, and inform the right personnel immediately in the event of real problems.”

“Washington Hospital Center is a leader in the use of technology to help deal with human emergencies and has experience with victims of terrorist acts, including treating the patients critically burned in the Pentagon attack and screening hundreds of people who feared anthrax exposure,” said James C. Ackerly, CEO of Splinternet Holdings, Inc. “We’re excited to be working with them on this project.”

The EROne Institute at Washington Hospital Center is committed to developing innovative solutions to advance the state of hospital emergency readiness for catastrophic events. It was founded as part of Project EROne, a federally funded initiative to design and demonstrate the concepts, features and specifications for an all-risks ready emergency care facility. Convergint Technologies, a services-based systems integrator headquartered in Schaumburg, Ill., is Defentect’s partner in the installation.

For more information, visit www.defentect.com.

Defentect November 2008 press release.

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