Cynthia Brown, who joined the WCU faculty last fall, was asked by Mississippi officials to write a grant to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeking funding for development of a Web-based system to enable hospitals, nursing homes, medical needs shelters, public health agencies and other organizations to share real-time information, including the need for staff, supplies and resources.

Many Mississippi residents impacted by Hurricane Katrina were dependent upon Medicaid benefits for health care needs, Brown said. When the storm displaced thousands of residents, health care agencies had difficulty finding accurate records about many of those displaced patients, she said. The electronic data system proposed by the Mississippi Division of Medicaid addresses that problem, and also could be used during non-emergency times.

“The Mississippi Medicaid population accounts for about one-fourth of the state’s total population, which I believe is the highest percentage in the country,” said Brown, who was working as an attorney in private practice in Mississippi and Florida before being forced to relocate after Katrina. “It is on that basis that the state Division of Medicaid became the vehicle for what is a non-traditional role in emergency response. I was asked to assist with the proposal and, after the Katrina catastrophe that took my home and office, I could not say no to the request for help.”

Through the grant, Mississippi expects to have a Web-based system for sharing health care information among providers operational by 2008.