Maine Partners with Biospatial

(Falls Church, Va.) – Maine EMS, a bureau within the Department of Public Safety, has completed Data Use and Analytic agreements to become the twenty-third state to partner with Biospatial, Inc. Biospatial uses emergency medical services and health-related data sources to provide timely, national-scale syndromic detection, monitor real-time trends, and alert to syndromic anomalies critical to the nation’s health and safety. Maine EMS will submit de-identified National EMS Information System (NEMSIS) data elements to the Biospatial platform to assist in national preparedness and enhance Maine’s ability to visualize their data with other data layers of relevance.

“One of the largest challenges with healthcare data is translating it into actionable items that allow us to make a difference,” said J. Sam Hurley, Maine EMS director. “Biospatial’s robust analytical platform will enable Maine EMS to better utilize existing EMS data to improve the health and safety of the residents and visitors to the State.” Mr. Hurley indicated that an important factor in Maine’s participation was that Biospatial does not collect patient identifiers such as name and social security number. Despite not having these identifiers, Biospatial has proven success with linking EMS data to other data types, such as motor vehicle collision records.

Biospatial develops partnerships with state and local data owners to bring health-related data into the Biospatial platform; in turn, Biospatial provides data owners access to data visualization tools, syndromic surveillance and alerting, summary dashboards, and clinical and operational reporting at no cost. Users at local, state, regional, and national levels use the Biospatial Platform tools to support near real-time biosurveillance, preparedness and response, syndromic and opioid surveillance, and automotive safety missions.

Biospatial is working closely with the National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO) to connect with state EMS offices. NASEMSO has partnered with Biospatial because of the value the analytics can provide to the NEMSIS data that state EMS offices collect. Biospatial has created a pathway to contribute to state-specific surveillance and offer real-time value to state epidemiologists and state health officers.

State EMS offices that are interested in participating with Biospatial should contact Dave Zaiman at dave.zaiman@biospatial.io or 612-961-5396.