The Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases (IIAD), a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Center of Excellence, has been funded to expand their iCVI mobile application to multiple devices and platforms, to include apps for Android phones and tablets and iPhones in addition to the original iPad compatible app.
The app, which was originally released in June 2014, offers an easy-to-use, touch-screen toolbox of capabilities for veterinary practitioners, allowing them to submit electronic animal health certificates from the field, or store that information within the application for forwarding when data connectivity becomes available.
This real-time information sharing is an alternative to email or web-based systems, and helps improve communication between veterinarians and state animal health offices by supporting certificate submission from the field.
In addition to providing a mobile interface for CVIs, the end-user has the ability to print paper-based forms directly from the mobile application. Submitted CVIs can also be automatically and/or manually imported into state animal health information systems.
Upon release, the app quickly experienced popularity among SAHOs and veterinarians across the country. Today, iCVI is currently being piloted and evaluated in 16 states, with almost 500 verified accounts. More than 7,000 CVIs have been submitted through the app in its lifetime.
“We’ve seen increasingly widespread enthusiasm about the iCVI app and, by making the app available on more types of devices, we hope to see its use become more prevalent,” said Tammy Beckham, DVM, Ph.D., IIAD director. “By expanding the platform, more veterinarians around the country will be able to leverage the technology – resulting in greater coverage of animal movements across the country and more efficient and enhanced understanding of movements at the state level.”
“Submitted CVIs can be made available within the IIAD AgConnect suite,” Beckham said. “Expanding the iCVI platform and increasing the data submitted into animal health databases will also increase the usefulness of AgConnect in supporting our SAHOs as they go about day-to-day monitoring of animal movements and performing response activities in case of disease outbreaks.”
AgConnect is a suite of customizable data integration and analysis products designed to enhance real-time animal health situational awareness, enable permissioned data sharing and support decision-making in the event of emerging, zoonotic and/or high consequence diseases.
With permissions, state veterinarians will be able to visualize the iCVI data along with other data stored within the AgConnect suite (e.g., additional animal movements, premises, surveillance, diagnostic test results and other emergency response data), allowing for greater situational awareness during a disease event.
Real-time data integration of the above mentioned data streams would greatly aid state animal health officials in making decisions on animal and animal product movements during a disease outbreak.
IIAD is working closely with the state animal health officials and practicing veterinarians in participating states to refine and optimize the application as needed during the expansion process.
The app was developed in partnership with the Texas Center for Applied Technology (TCAT), a part of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station. The app is part of a business continuity project, which is funded by the DHS S&T Directorate Office of University Programs, and has been developed in close coordination with the state animal health officials (SAHOs) in Colorado and Kansas. The mobile application was modeled after and builds upon the eCVI PDF form developed by the SAHOs in these states.
The “iCVI” app is currently available for free download from Apple’s App Store.
