WILD-ONe, the Wildlife Incident Log/Database and Online Network, is an online database created specifically to assist wildlife care facilities in the collection and use of patient-related data. The system includes an admission form which uses standardized terminology, most of which are provided in convenient and efficient drop-down lists, for ease of use and consistency in reporting. There are mapping tools provided to collect precise rescue and release locations. The system has been designed to assist users in collecting critical information about their patients, compiling and using that information in a variety of ways. One of the most basic, yet attractive features of the system is the ability to automatically generate information for annual reports for state and federal permitting agencies.
The most important advance provided by the system is in the standardization of terms and descriptions. Wildlife care facilities will be able to compile, sort, and search the information contained in patient records, based on many fields, or combination of fields, within the records, including species, date, rescue/release locations, types of injuries, ages of the patients, etc. The use of a standard intake template, and a single set of terms and definitions, also means that data on patients in multiple care facilities can be combined, analyzed and studied. Until now, it has been impossible to develop a comprehensive understanding of what species are being presented for care, where and when they are being found, and what factors are leading to their injuries, illnesses, or other problems.
All wildlife care providers, whether a home-based wildlife rehabilitator, or a large facility, need a complete history of what happened to each patient in order to provide appropriate care. This system makes the collection of that information a simple and routine process. Instead of having to write or manually enter the description of the patient and the circumstances of its injury or problem, you can simply click on the options provided. The resulting admission log will include information on all patients that is both accurate and consistent.
The WILD-ONe database uses a standardized set of data fields and terminology that have been developed by a broad consortium of public and private organizations working together as the Clinical Wildlife Health Initiative. All of these organizations share the belief that wildlife care facilities are untapped sources of information which could greatly extend our knowledge and understanding of wildlife health issues. Unfortunately, until recently there has been neither a standard set of descriptions for those problems, nor a means through which wildlife rehabilitation centers can pool their information to facilitate a comprehensive analysis of wildlife health issues. By working together and using a single set of data collection tools, the wildlife rehabilitation community could provide the most comprehensive picture of wildlife health issues ever seen in North America!
Unlike the use of desktop or laptop computers for data storage inside your facility, power surges or disruptions that could damage or destroy the data on your own system will have no effect on your data maintained online. If your Internet connection is disrupted or intermittent, WILD-ONe has printable admission forms which can be used to capture all critical data on patient intake, using the standardized report format and terms. This information can then be entered into the online system when the connection is restored.
Yes! Some of the information you capture is yours exclusively and cannot be accessed or used by anyone else without your express permission. For example, the names and contact information for the people who rescued or transported the animal, and whether or not they made a donation, is all confidential data over which you will maintain full ownership and control. The specific manner in which you care for your patients, what food or medicines you provide, the results of tests you perform is generally not public information and cannot be accessed by anyone unless you give your permission. Your use of WILD-ONe will not compromise your intellectual property rights in any way.
WILD-ONe will never sell your private data or unfairly exploit your hard work.
While created for wildlife rehabilitation facilities, the type of information WILD-ONe can manage includes much more than just patient intake data. The WILD-ONe database is a very powerful set of software tools which, with some modifications, can be used by many groups, including governments, industry, and researchers; anyone needing to record and compile information about wildlife incidents. The goal of the Wildlife Center of Virginia is to have other users of the WILD-ONe system pay for access to the public information contained in the program, essentially subsidizing the availability of the system for wildlife care providers.
The future of WILD-ONe enhancements is largely in the hands of its users. System administrators seek out user suggestions and feedback to develop new tools and improve upon current features. A WILD-ONe advisory group, made up of actual users, is being formed to help prioritize enhancements and plan the direction of the system to best meet the needs of its account holders.
Some high priority enhancements include the ability to include attachments such as pictures to a patient’s record, the ability to electronically transfer a record between WILD-ONe users, the ability to update multiple records at the same time, and more reports for entering diagnostic results or procedure findings.
The WILD-ONe database was created by the Wildlife Center of Virginia (WCV), one of the oldest and most-respected wildlife hospitals in the United States. During the development of WILD-ONe, WCV drew upon the work of many other organizations. The template for incident reporting was largely created by the Clinical Wildlife Health Initiative (CWHI), a collaborative effort of more than a dozen wildlife care and conservation organizations (including WCV). CWHI was organized and chaired by The Raptor Center of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, with whom WCV continues to work closely on this project. The International Species Information System (ISIS) contributed the terminology and definitions of the life-stages of the various species listed. The list of species, including both scientific and common names, was provided by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (IT IS). WILD-ONe is the result of nearly a decade of work and the investment of more than a half-million dollars.
WILD-One enables you to collect information about each of your patients that can then be used to review and analyze intake patterns, a valuable asset in planning and budgeting. WILD-ONe also provides tools for gathering contact information about the people who found, rescued, transported or otherwise came into contact with your patients. You will be able to sort and compile this contact information for follow-up communication, the generation of mailing lists, or export to fundraising or accounting software. You can even keep track of whether the rescuer or transporter makes a financial contribution or if the rescuer wants to be contacted about the release of the patient when it is able to return to the wild.
WILD-ONe operates from highly secure servers owned and maintained by a company called Site-Vision, in Roanoke, Virginia. These servers are protected by the highest level of security software, which prevents unauthorized intrusion. The data contained on these servers is backed up daily so even if a disaster or malfunction were to occur, no data would be lost and operations would have minimal disruption.
No. Your patient records and the data you put into the system belong to you; your decision to use WILD-ONe will not change that. You will always own that information and have access to it. By using the system, the only thing you are agreeing to do is to share the portion of your patient intake record that is, for the most part, already public information.
It helps to keep in mind that information about the animals received for care and the description of their injuries is not really personal or proprietary information. It is information to which the agencies issuing your wildlife rehabilitation permits already have legal access. Generally speaking, if the government can access that information, it is essentially public information. This includes the basic data about the animals and what happened to them, before you admit them for care. Unlike human medical information, or even veterinary information on privately-owned pets, there are no privacy obstacles to sharing such general wildlife health data.. While there is a great deal of variation in the annual reports required by the state and federal agencies that regulate wildlife rehabilitation, most require some version of these incident descriptions. Information included on those reports is generally considered public information.
In general, access to your data will only happen after your data has been combined with the data from other system users. The system is not intended to give third parties the ability to look inside each participating center and judge their respective operations. Rather it is intended to let many centers share information, about bald eagles for example, which will show what kinds of problems are affecting them in different regions of the country. The system will also facilitate the study of particular wildlife health issues, such as collisions with power lines, by illustrating how many species are being affected and where the problem areas are found. The whole point of strict authorization of users, the use of passwords, and secure sign-in procedures is to protect your information and the integrity of the database. The information in WILD-One will not be available for any unauthorized personnel to access, and will not enable anyone to single out a specific care center for scrutiny or criticism. You can even control which of the authorized users within your facility can see what information. The goal of WILD-ONe is to provide a powerful and secure set of tools to help our community pool data and look holistically at these issues. Once an animal is admitted as a patient, your care of that animal is your business.
As time goes on, and the volume of data increases, there may be certain trends within WILD-ONe data that will be available to the public. For example, it may be of interest to the public to know when certain species of migratory birds show up in their state, or how widely distributed a certain species may be. Scientists or birding organizations that compile breeding bird census reports may benefit from knowing where fledglings of a certain species have been found, in order to assure that nesting territory is properly delineated. However, in any access scenario, both the interests of the participating centers, and the interests of wildlife will be considered and protected.
Nothing! WILD-ONe is available to wildlife care facilities at no cost. The only thing asked in return will be the commitment of the participating centers to make a concerted effort to gather and enter data on their patients accurately and consistently, and in a timely manner. While there is no way to know what the future holds, there is no plan to charge care facilities for the basic use of the system. There may be a charge for customized features or forms that you wish to create for your own facility, or for customized analysis or reporting of your records, but these will be strictly optional services available, and developed with your assistance.
Participation in the WILD-ONe system is strictly voluntary. To participate, the only commitment you make is to comply with the terms of use, and follow the standardized data collection protocols. If you want to drop out, you can do so at any time. You can download your data from WILD-ONe to your own system, or go back to paper records.
You can log onto the visitor account at www.wild-one.org and use the email address visitor@wildlifecenter.org and password visitor. This account allows you to use all the features of the system and see if WILD-ONe can work for you. To arrange an online demonstration of the system contact the WILD-ONe team at wild-one@wildlifecenter.org or at 540-942-9453.