The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released the CRC eTool, a new tool for epidemiologists and other public health professionals to use following a radiation emergency.

A radiation incident affecting a large population will require local response authorities to establish one or more population monitoring and decontamination facilities to assess people for radiation exposure, contamination and the need for other follow-up. These facilities are known as community reception centers (CRCs).

The CRC eTool is designed to collect, analyze, visualize, and securely exchange population monitoring data, including demographics, radiation contamination measurements, radiation exposure assessment, and health outcomes. It is created using the Epi Info 7 platform and can be implemented using a local area network of laptops, tablets, and cell phones. Data analysis, visualization, and transfer and exchange processes are very efficient because the data are collected electronically.

Epi Info is a free platform that is commonly used by public health professionals for data collection, statistical analysis, and data visualization. The software provides for easy data entry form and database construction, a customized data entry experience, and data analyses with epidemiologic statistics, maps, and graphs for public health professionals who may lack an information technology background.

This new CRC eTool can be accessed at https://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/crcetool.asp. If you have questions about the CRC eTool, you may contact Ekta Choudhary at [email protected] .