EIDO, the Stanley Cup, and the Center of the Ice
Published by Jay Malin on .
A few weeks ago, while visiting Chris and Matt at the Boston office, we discovered that the Stanley Cup was also in town. Naturally, we took the opportunity to bask in hockey greatness for a moment.
Last week, our team participated in industry standards discussions where there appeared to be some differing perspectives on the role of an Incident Data Exchange (IDX), both within a PSAP (intra-agency) and between PSAPs (interagency).
Which got me thinking about hockey.
The center plays a critical role in orchestrating the action on the ice. The center reads the developing play, supports the defense, distributes the puck to the wingers, and helps maintain coordination as the action moves across the ice.
Frigidity aside, an IDX serves a similar coordinating function.
An IDX helps maintain incident state, normalize and protect data, and facilitate the exchange of information according to established policies and access controls. Like a good center, it helps ensure that the right information gets to the right players at the right time.
Consider a multijurisdictional incident.
PSAP A shares incident information with the fire department served by PSAP B. As the incident develops, relevant medical information must also be conveyed to a third agency—an EMS provider.
Simple enough, right?
Not necessarily.
Each agency may have different policies governing what information it can receive, retain, modify, or share with others. Just because PSAP A shares an incident with PSAP B does not necessarily mean that every element of that incident can be forwarded to EMS C.
The exchange must account for those policies while maintaining a coherent picture of the incident as it evolves across jurisdictions.
This is where the role of an IDX becomes particularly important.
Industry standards continue to evolve around implementation variations, extensions, and the management of multijurisdictional incident information. There is also important work ahead in aligning incident data exchange with established emergency management practices and the operational realities of agencies working together.
Our Resilient Link team has been actively engaged in these discussions, bringing decades of public safety and interoperability experience to the development of our EIDO Incident Data Fabric.
We’re applying that knowledge to help communities coordinate incident information across agencies, whether they’re managing everyday calls or responding to severe storms.
After all, interoperability isn’t just about passing the puck.
It’s about keeping everyone in the game.
