Beating the Flu Queue  (Print This) 11/06/2005 Is your local government ready to effectively handle mass vaccinations or distribution of medicine in the event of a pandemic bird flu? Engineers are offering help.

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As you go through the line at Montgomery County flu clinics this year, you might notice people carefully watching and timing your every move.  University of Maryland engineers, lead by professor Jeffrey Herrmann, are working to streamline the process, especially if it becomes crowded during a dangerous pandemic.  They're combining engineering principles from manufacturing and information about human nature with common spreadsheet software.  Health officials can plug in data such as number of staff, clinic space, and whether people will arrive all at once or trickle in.  Herrmann says the system then points to ways of optimizing available resources and minimizing your time waiting among potentially contagious people.  With the National Academy of Engineering, Randy Atkins, WTOP Radio.

Public health officials anywhere in the world can download the software program for free.  To find out more about this, and other "Innovative Engineering" stories, go to wtopnews.com and look under "Features."

• The Herrmann team's project and software for improving clinic operations during mass vacinations

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