ABSTRACT
Abstract: The emergence of wireless communications technologies (e.g., cell phones) has allowed for faster emergency incident notification. New wireless technologies on board automobiles, such as automatic crash notification (ACN), provide yet another method to reduce emergency notification times and provide valuable information to emergency responders. This chapter presents a case study of the Minnesota Mayday system, a service-oriented architecture-based information system that automatically pushes select General Motors (GM) OnStar emergency data to preauthorized emergency response and transportation stakeholders (e.g., dispatch centers, law enforcement, ambulance providers, health care facilities, traffic management centers, and the traveling public). While an overview of the Mayday operational system is provided, the focus of this chapter is on the perspectives of the users that were affected by the system. In this sense, the chapter focuses on the relationship between the operational Mayday system and the behavior of emergency responders and participating organizations. The time-critical information services (TCIS) sociotechnical framework is utilized as a guiding framework to extract end-user perspectives, perceptions, and issues related to the end-to-end performance impact of the Mayday system. Interview responses from GM OnStar, Minnesota State Patrol, Department of Transportation, and Mayo Clinic representatives are organized along operational, organizational, and governance dimensions of interorganizational information exchanges. Findings include “timeliness” and “quality of care” performance benefits that resulted from the information technology (IT) and business process changes implemented to support interorganizational emergency services; the need to design information systems to “fit” both organizational and interorganizational performance goals; and the critical role of an oversight organization in the success of interorganizational emergency response information systems. Additional system needs and requirements are discussed and implications presented for decision makers and system designers for both day-to-day and crisis situations. The Mayday system architecture is also discussed in terms of how it informs the development of an end-to-end national model for incident information exchange.
