ALEXANDRIA, Vir., and INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - At the Fire Department Instructor’s Conference 2006, Defense Group Inc. (DGI) announced today that the newest version of its flagship software product, CoBRA®, will be released next month. CoBRA 4.1 will be an important upgrade to last fall’s release, which included DGI's proprietary Improvised Explosives Device identification tool, and which has since been deployed to US Army troops in Iraq. CoBRA 4.1 will include integration with WISER, ALOHA and MARPLOT; a unified search interface; improved form and checklist handling; and, updated data sources.
CoBRA is decision support software that provides first responders with critical interactive tools, guides, standard operating procedures, NIMS/ICS forms, checklists and incident reporting capabilities for all-hazard incident management.
WISER (Wireless Information System for Emergency Responder) is a tool developed by the HHS/National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NLM). Developed in cooperation with NLM, WISER V2.2 has been integrated into the CoBRA tool suite and provides users with enhanced functionality for identifying and dealing with hazardous chemical substances. When WISER is downloaded onto a computer alongside CoBRA, it links in to the incident report logging and unified search interface functions of CoBRA, meaning that now CoBRA users will no longer need to flip back and forth between separate programs.
The unified search interface provides swift, comprehensive access to resources in CoBRA from a single screen. All tools shipping with CoBRA that support search are linked into this interface. New tools added to CoBRA can easily be linked into the interface, providing for extensibility by third party developers. The updated form and checklist tools enhance data sharing by allowing forms and checklists to be exported from CoBRA and viewed in any web browser. This enhances the information sharing capabilities provided by CoBRA that are so critical in planning for and responding to crisis situations.
“FDIC is the perfect venue at which to announce this release,” said Chris Boehm, CoBRA Group Vice President. “CoBRA has been adopted by many responder training institutions. It has been integrated into the course curriculum at the Academy of Counter-Terrorist Education at Louisiana State University and is also used as a learning aide at the DoD Fire Academy and DHS Fire Academy. CoBRA is used in fire departments across the country, by military, federal, and civilian firefighters. These departments are typically first on scene when incidents involve hazardous materials, and our newest features specifically help them handle these situations more quickly, safely, and effectively.”
About DGI
Since 1987, DGI has assisted federal, state and local government agencies in preparation for and response to incidents involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive threats. For more information on CoBRA® and DGI, visit www.defensegroupinc.com/cobra.
The easily readable shorthand notation CoBRA® is used here to represent the registered trademark
For more information about WISER and the National Library of Medicine, visit wiser.nlm.nih.gov
