Tucson - Scientific Technologies Corp software used for tracking diseas

By Dan Sorenson
ARIZONA DAILY STAR 4/30/09

The founder of a Tucson company that makes software for disease early warning, tracking and immunization believes technology being thrown at the swine flu outbreak is already working.

The expanded and expedited gath­ering of information about disease outbreaks has changed with modern technology and an increased govern­ment interest that was sparked by 9/11, said Michael Popovich, CEO and president of Scientific Technolo­gies Corp. or STS. “After 9/11, the federal govern­ment started to invest more in public health and reporting systems,” Popovich said. “Now, there’s a lot more electronic notification and linkages.”

He said drugstore chains in New Hampshire, one of the states using STS Corp.’s products, agreed to pro­vide over-the-counter drug sales in­formation so it could be plugged into STS software.

Spikes in sales of certain items, such as Pepto-Bismol, reflect and pinpoint gastrointestinal problems tied to certain kinds of disease out­breaks before they show up through official public health channels, Popovich said.

And later, by compiling positive lab tests and reports by doctors and emergency rooms, a more detailed picture of the type, size, location and demographics of an outbreak can be drawn.

He said the Tucson firm’s immu­nization tracking software can help determine which groups might be hardest struck by an outbreak, or how the government might best use a lim­ited amount of vaccine to protect a vulnerable group or check the spread of a disease to the larger population.

The firm’s software could be of use, possibly even in the case of the swine flu and other outbreaks for which there are no vaccines, Popovich said. He said immuniza­tions against some specific commu­nicable diseases may have a limited effectiveness against related strains, as sometimes happens with varia­tions on influenza.

The tracking software, which is mostly sold to public health agencies, can also be of use after the fact if analysis determines that people who took preventative measures were stricken, indicating that either the vaccines were ineffective or that a second dose was needed.

Contact reporter Dan Sorenson at 573-4185 or dsorenson@azstarnet.com.