DNA Identification in Mass Fatality Incidents
Sharing Information
Information technology (IT) should be considered both in the context of the identification work and as a tool to foster communication. Many laboratories have come to appreciate the value of a LIMS and sophisticated DNA matching/kinship software; however, IT also can be used to enhance interorganizational communication. The DNA laboratory will need IT solutions to exchange data with other government or vendor laboratories that are participating in the mass disaster response. For example, the ME most likely will have a system that tracks the status of all identification modalities, and the DNA laboratory's system(s) should be fully integrated so data entry is not duplicated.
Mass Fatality Incidents: A Guide for Human Forensic Identification, recognizes some of these challenges:
When multiple organizations participate in a mass fatality response, several types of data may need to be exchanged, depending on the relationship between the organizations. External organizations and systems that typically require IT interfaces include:
- Government (partner) laboratories.
- Vendor laboratories.
- Sample collection agencies (e.g., first responders that collect and catalogue remains or collect personal items and kinship samples).
- CODIS.
- Mass-fatality-specific software programs (e.g., the Victim Identification Program (VIP), which is provided free of charge by the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams).
- LIMS.
Exhibit 18 depicts business processes that will have to be integrated among laboratories if more than one laboratory is involved in the DNA identification analysis.
To successfully build interfaces across these business processes, the IT manager should consider:
- Physical connectivity between systems (e.g., Internet, private network, CD–ROM).
- Security requirements (e.g., encryption, firewalls, access controls).
- Data archiving.
- Communication mechanisms (e.g., file transfers, enterprise messaging, database interaction); most of this type of integration in mass fatality identification responses has been accomplished through file transfers.
- Data exchange formats (e.g., fields, field lengths, data types, relationships); data exchange formats are particularly challenging due to differences among some LIMS systems.
- Compatible barcodes that allow a barcode applied in one laboratory to be scanned and read in other laboratories.
