The Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications has developed the Haiti Earthquake People Locator (HEPL) system http://hepl.nlm.nih.gov/inw/ to assist in reunification of family members and loved ones during the earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. Using any email client, relief personnel in the region can submit photographs and descriptive information about individuals found in the disaster area. Web site users are able to search for a person by name, view photographs (if available) of individuals listed by that name, and then see the status (missing, alive and well, injured, or deceased) of those individuals whose information was submitted to the site. Users are also able to voluntarily post information about people who are still missing. In addition, a specialized "Found in Haiti" application developed by the NLM for the iPhone connects to the HEPL. The site also has a meta-search engine covering CNN, Google and the International Red Cross. Direct iTunes link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/found-in-haiti/id352646068?mt=8
Note, this application, available for free from iTunes, is compatible with iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS and requires iPhone OS 3.0 or higher.

The HEPL system, developed by NLM's Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, shares information with other person finder systems, including the one being used by the US Department of State, to ensure that all searches operate across the largest possible set of matches. The technology for this system was developed by the NLM as part of its R&D contribution to the Bethesda Hospitals Emergency Preparedness Partnership (BHEPP), a collaboration among the NLM, the NIH Clinical Center, the National Naval Medical Center and Suburban Hospital/Johns Hopkins Medicine, to improve emergency response capabilities in the National Capital Region, and also serve as a model for the nation.