The objective of this Peter Pribilla Fellowship project is to elucidate how service innovations in the face of uncertainty, with regard to food borne disease outbreaks, emerge. This context is deemed adequate due to its high societal, and managerial relevance, as recent serious human infections in the course of enter haemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) have highlighted an unexpected vulnerability in the German health care sector this year. What is more, we aim at getting a more thorough understanding of how actors, in particular organizations, actually face uncertainty. Thus, we make service innovations and managerial practice efforts visible, ensuing from dealing with uncertainty resulting from large scale disease outbreaks. Uncertainty – understood here as the unexpected and non-calculable – by contrast to calculable risks has been only rarely researched to date despite its societal relevance, and omnipresence. Thus, it is not surprising that recently there have been increasing calls to devote more attention to this theme. For instance, the recent global financial crisis has revealed the shortcomings of sophisticated mathematical models. In a similar vein, notions of risk fail short to offer answers to related incidents imbued with uncertainty like the terrorist attacks of 9/11, tsunamis or the volcanic ash clouds of the Icelandic volcano. The way that (inter)organizational actors actually deal with uncertainty before, during and after such phenomena, has been researched within disciplinary silos, mostly in an isolated manner, and sticking to risk conceptions.

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Epidemic Communicator
Uncertainty as a Trigger for Service Innovations
Gordon Müller-Seitz, Carsten Reuter, Christoph Stöckmann, Wotan Wilden and Gil Breth
Munich, October 22, 2012
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Agenda
Introducing the epicomm -Team
Introducing the Issue
What We Promised
What We Deliver
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Epicomm - Team
Gordon Müller-Seitz Carsten Reuter
Pre-studies (automotive) FHG distribution channels
Qualitative empirical studies Information flow
Teaching cases Possibilities to promote the
theme
Christoph Stöckmann Wotan Wilden
App production Product Design
Empirical study Prototyping
Multi-channel marketing Usability
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Agenda
Introducing the epicomm -Team
Introducing the Issue
What We Promised
What We Deliver
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Uncertainty in the run-up or during events can take many forms,
is managerially relevant and represents an omnipresent phenomenon
Ebola Tsunamis Eyjafjallajökull
Fukushima Deepwater Horizon 9/11
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After the crisis is before the next crisis
Uncertainty remains a latent key concern for many health care actors
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Uncertainty  risk
Uncertainty in our setting is diffuse and critical
hystery prone setting
reducing uncertainty (public authorities etc.)
Overarching research question:
How do actors cope with uncertainty in the face of HC disasters?
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Specific case
The invisible is EHEC
Leadership is needed to introduce innovative services
Call center hotline
Receipe-based cohort study
EHEC Task Force (innovative form of collaboration for the PuMa sector)
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Agenda
Introducing the epicomm -Team
Introducing the Issue
What We Promised
What We Deliver
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Our promise – outputs will occur in the following areas
Teaching
Case studies for three diseases
Research
A conference paper
Dissemination
Gaining attention for the PPS
Product
App
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Agenda
Introducing the epicomm -Team
Introducing the Issue
What We Promised
What We Deliver
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Investment of 40.000 € funding by Peter Pribilla-Foundation
Travelling 8.000 €
Epicomm Team
Research/teaching 12.000 €
Student assistants for data collection and analysis purpose
Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Management
Product research/design 5.000 €
Student assistants for user research and app design
Technische Universität München, Lehrstuhl für Industrial Design
App implementation 15.000 €
netSTART Systems GmbH and Hag&Hagal
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Teaching output - generating visibility of the PPF-theme
Case studies
EHEC: „EHEC-Ausbruch 2011 in Deutschland – Der Kampf gegen den unsichtbaren Feind “
SARS: „SARS-Pandemie 2002/2003: Die Angst reist um die Welt “
BSE: „Der schiere Wahnsinn – Die BSE-Epidemie in Großbritannien und ihre weitreichenden
Folgen für Europa “
Research seminars
Freie Universität Berlin
(„Forschungsseminar“ / summer term 2012/13)
Universität Hamburg
(„Public Risk Management“ / winter term 2012/13)
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Research output - crafting output for the scientific arena
Exchange fora with leading experts from the field
Joe Lampel (Cass Business School)
Bridget Hutter (LSE)
Presentations/papers 2012
Public Management Colloquium/WK ÖBWL
„Interorganisationale Praktiken im Umgang mit Unsicherheit am Beispiel des EHEC-Ausbruchs“
OLKC
„Situated Learning during Uncertain Events: The Case of the German EHEC outbreak 2011“
EURAM
„Managing Uncertainty in the Case of Food-borne Disease Outbreaks:
Explorative Evidence from Public Health Insittutions“
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Dissemination - leverage existing resources and facilities
DocCheck
Leads pursued (ongoing)
Fire department Düsseldorf
Departmental authority for Health and Consumer Protection (Hamburg)
Inquired / existing contacts
Apothekenrundschau
Computer Bild
Bild
FU Berlin online magazine
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Product - App developing process
Generation of user stories
Survey of experts
Definition of main functions
App design
App implementation
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App - Generation of 12 user stories
Example 1
Information on health status of family members and friends
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App - Generation of 12 user stories
Example 2
Location-based concentration of site-specific symptoms triggers alarm
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App - Survey of experts
Contacts
Bayerische Landesärztekammer
Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe
Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft e.V.
Deutscher Wetter Dienst
Deutsches Rotes Kreuz
Europäisches Zentrum für Krankheitsprävention und Kontrolle (ECDC)
Feuerwehr Branddirektion München
GDACS (Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System)
Helmholtz Zentrum München, Epidemiologie Abteilung
Johanniter (Unfall-Hilfe e. V.)
Malteser
„MediCare“ / Flughafen München Medizinisches Zentrum GmbH
Polizeipräsidium München
Referat für Gesundheitsschutz und Infektionsschutz der Landeshauptstadt München
Referat für Gesundheit und Umwelt der Landeshauptstadt München
Technisches Hilfswerk
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App - Survey of experts
Results
Interest in the use of the app is given.
Responsible source must be trustworthy and reliable! Who is the competent, trustworthy source?
The app is not useful for travelers.
Still possible: recommendations of the Foreign Office warnings instead (this is the full
responsibility of the national authorities and of some international public health institutions!)
Behavioral advice instead of standard information, with which the user is left alone.
Location-based data is desirable, but only anonymously and not exactly but as a display of the
relative density.
It would be great to have the system able not just to register the single case but to identify
geographical/timing clusters.
In terms of warning, users should have the possibility to clearly distinguish what they find on
media from what they find from any authority or reliable source.
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App - definition and design of main functions
Basic settings
When you start using the app you will be asked which information is used
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App - definition and product design of main functions
Behavior of the app on Warnings
Warnings appear as push messages on the smartphone
The home screen is focused on the most important functions to reduce panic:
messages, behavioral advice and search for a doctor
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App - definition and design of main functions
General information within the app
General topics and articles serve as a supplement to the warnings and reduce panic
Already read information fades to gray, for a better overview
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App - definition and design of main functions
Self examination
Result consists of the analysis of symtoms and the location-based risk assessment
With a worrying result the user is forwarded to "behavioral advice “
Results are anonymously recorded and displayed in a interactive map
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App - definition and design of main functions
Interactive map
Possible setting at the beginning are „choose filter" (which diseases to be shown) and
„select period" to (in the last 24hours / year)
The evaluated data of the self examination results appear alongside official sources in the charts
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App - definition and design of main functions
Doctor Locator
Only relevant specialists are shown (e.g. virologists)
When you click on a desired pin on the map, the contact of the doctor will be displayed
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App - Implementation
netSTART Systems GmbH and Hag&Hagal
Gil Breth
Geschäftsführer
netSTART Systems GmbH
Oststr. 11-13 (Rhein-Carré),
D-50996 Köln-Rodenkirchen
www.netstart-systems.de
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App - Technology
In 2012 Apple integrated a wireless emergency alert system into iOS 6
Client
user
iOS warns user
Base-System
service provides alert Information is independent of time and location
Only in the USA
Emergency Alert Service Only emergency warnings
No direct support
Collects and provides
emergency alerts
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App - Technology
Epicomm provides a back-channel for users to receive user-generated data
Client
user
User generates data
iOS warns user Self examination
doctor search
Direct support
Base-System
service provides alert
Country independent
Epicomm Service Comparsion of user data
Analysis of user data
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App - Functions
General information
News
Integration of various online news sources
Aggregation of news
Cross-platform deployment (XML, RSS)
Not personalized content
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App - Functions
Self examination
Symptom query
Provision of symptoms
Detection of symptoms depending on the user location
Anonymous online data storage
Location based analysis of the symtoms
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App - Functions
Location based doctor search
Doctors Overview
Display of appropriate doctors in the own area
Direct contact opportunities
Location based results
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App - Functions
Symptom radar
Message summary
Displaying messages in the own area
Time and location dependent
Visualization of message types
(confirmed vs. non-confirmed)
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App - Demonstration
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Epicomm can visualize and react on spread of viruses in real time
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Video source: Adam Sadilek, Predicting Spread of Disease from Social Media,http://www.cs.rochester.edu/~sadilek/research
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What’s next?
Partner Network
Integration of data sources
Quality of service/data
Media and PR
News in our news/social media network (approx. 6.000 members)
PR-partners: Computer Bild, Center.TV, VDI News
Data, data and even more data
Support for other plattforms (Android and Windows Phone)
User generated content
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Thank you for your attention and support
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