Designed with the needs of end-users in mind, the Health & Safety Watch (HSW) web-portal provides a user-friendly, intuitive, personalizable, health & safety intelligence experience accessible over the internet. Led by public health experts, the design team had one primary goal, development of a system that provides end-users (public, health professionals, industry) with the information they need to make informed decisions. Empowering People • Empowering Lives.. Health & safety information is gathered, processed, packaged, and presented using an innovative information management system. Customization features enable end-users to personalize the system to meet their individual needs.

Our system and processes have been designed to ensure accuracy in the collection, processing, analysis and distribution of health & safety intelligence of all types. Information is only collected from reliable sources, and is processed by content experts with state-of-the-art tools ensuring data integrity and reliability. To this end, we have engaged experts from stakeholder organizations to help design and implement the system.

Key System Features
HSW is designed to manage all types of health and safety hazards. Whether food, water, infectious diseases, travel, etc., HSW provides a standardized information management system and user experience.

Event-Based
HSW is event-based. Each health and safety issue is managed as a single event. Each Event consists of one or more Event Reports. The event-based framework enables a very rich user-experience.

User Interface
Using dashboards, summary lists, intelligent maps, information detail pages, category links and search boxes, the user can easily navigate and retrieve information relevant to their specific needs.

Intelligent Mapping
Unlike existing web-based information mapping systems that “put dots on a map”, HSW employs an innovative mapping system. Using color codes, users are able to easily identify what areas of the country are involved in the Event, and which locations are impacted by a specific Event Report. The very familiar Google Map control is used for map presentation and navigation. Mapping occurs at multiple levels: Provincial/Territorial, Hazard Region, City/Town, and soon - point of interest (address). Hazard Regions are based on local public health regions.

Personalization
By registering with HSW, users will be able to personalize the information service to meet their specific needs. For example, through the use of hazard filters a user can specify that they are interested in tree nut but not peanut allergy alerts. In addition, users will be able to specify one or more of 124 Canadian Hazard Regions they are interested in, and whether or not they wish to be notified by email if a new Event Report meets their hazard criteria.

Future Health & Safety Watch Products/Services
We expect HSW to evolve over time to meet the changing needs of users. A partial list of future enhancements is provided here:

• Integration with social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc);
• Organization-specific information management: Group-based functionality will enable different organizations to manage their own event information. For example, together with posting information for the public, a public health authority may want to share more technical information with health care providers; a retailer may wish to share specific product safety information with customers;
• Mobile device applications and location-based services (iPhone and Blackberry);
• Desktop Gadget;
• Personal transaction-based health alerts (based on credit cards, loyalty cards, etc).