Each year in the United States, between 5% and 20% of the population becomes infected with the seasonal influenza virus. Of people who catch the flu, more than 200,000 are hospitalized, and about 36,000 die from related complications. In recent years, the risk and potential consequences of influenza have increased significantly with emergence of avian flu (H5N1) and, more recently, swine flu (H1N1).

Voxiva's HealthConnect Flu service is designed to inform and engage employees, patients or the public about the flu in order to help them prepare and protect themselves. The service incorporates a number of key components that let clients broadcast critical health messages and alerts, help members of the public find immunization locations, remind them to get their vaccinations and help them self-triage based on symptoms. The service combines multiple modes of communication (web, email and text messaging) to reach the broadest audience possible and engage with them most effectively.

The service allows participants to register for the service by texting a key word (e.g. "FLU") to an SMS short code. They can also sign-up on the web. Once registered they can:

• Sign-up to receive alerts and educational messages about the flu via SMS.
• Sign-up to receive messages about vaccine availability and locations in their area.
• Find an immunization site near them.
• Complete an interactive self-triage survey via SMS to help them decide how best to protect themselves.

Administrative Interface: Authorized client staff access the system via a secure web interface. Once logged-in they can compose and send broadcast messages and alerts to all users or any subset of users. For example, they can send a message about a specific vaccination site to participants in one zip code. They can also monitor system usage and collected data through a series of data dashboards.