You are here: Home > CHEMM Intelligent Syndromes Tool (CHEMM-IST 2.0) - Beta
CHEMM Intelligent Syndromes Tool (CHEMM-IST 2.0) - Beta
- Vital signs
- Mental Status
- Pupil size
- Mucous membrane irritation
- Lung exam for wheezes or crackles
- Skin for burns, moistures, and color
Question
![CHEMM-ist Website](iconimages/moreinfo.png)
![CHEMM-ist Website](iconimages/moreinfo.png)
Syndrome Prediction
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20201218005130im_/https://chemm.nlm.nih.gov/images/colorlegend_grey.png)
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20201218005130im_/https://chemm.nlm.nih.gov/images/colorlegend_blue.png)
- The scene is suspicious for chemical exposure and results in mass casualties.
- The tool is constructed assuming the predominate route of exposure is inhalation
- The focus is on the severe cases.
- It does not include every possible chemical toxidrome. Exposures to other chemicals, pharmaceuticals, or toxins may not match one of the currently included syndromes.
- Results need to be interpreted carefully because exposures to other chemicals, pharmaceuticals, or toxins or other medical conditions could mimic these syndromes.
- The tool is for the basic life support (BLS) providers, advanced life support (ALS) first responders and hospital first receivers during a mass casualty chemical incident.
- Although the tool’s intended use is for large-scale chemical incidents, it may be used for other chemical exposure scenarios (e.g. industrial accidents or smaller scale hazardous materials releases) and even single patient chemical exposures, but the results should be interpreted with caution.
CHEMM-IST Overview
The CHEMM Intelligent Syndromes Tool (CHEMM-IST) is an advanced form of "FALCON: A Decision Support System for Hazardous Materials Incidents and Terrorism Response." FALCON was developed through "knowledge engineering" at the James Madison University as an undergraduate thesis project by student James Brandon Shreckhise (2006 undergraduate project and also described in limited detail in one publication1). The key expert involved in the development of FALCON is medical toxicologist Dr. Mark Kirk, and Dr. Kirk has been involved with other experts in medicine and emergency response in the development of CHEMM-IST. Through a series of interviews by Mr. Shreckhise with Dr. Kirk during the development of FALCON, Dr. Kirk's diagnostic expertise was first modeled using decision trees. These decision trees were then engineered into IF-THEN rules and used to create a prototype expert system. CHEMM-IST started with the foundation of FALCON; however, CHEMM-IST's design and implementation is very different, and its development was primarily accomplished via several group discussions of physicians and emergency responders with the facilitation by CHEMM Team. CHEMM-IST's developers attended the group discussions to design and test CHEMM-IST in these interactive sessions.
What's New
2.0 Beta
- 7 syndromes
- Documentation updates and interface improvements
1.0 Beta
- Initial CHEMM-IST Release
- 4 syndromes
References
- "Engineering a Medical Response Knowledge Base for FALCON: A Decision Support System for Hazardous Chemical Incidents." A Project Presented to the Faculty of the College of Integrated Science and Technology James Madison University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Bachelor of Arts by James Brandon Shreckhise. 2006.
- Frysinger SP , Deaton ML, Gonzalo AG, VanHorn AM, and Kirk MA . "The FALCON decision support system: Preparing communities for weapons of opportunity." Environmental Modelling & Software. 2007; 22:431-5.