Inventory Management and Tracking System (IMATS)

Keeping Track of Countermeasure Inventory Down to the Local Level

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Inventory Management and Tracking System (IMATS) helps state and local public health agencies track medical countermeasure inventory and supplies during daily operations or an all-hazards event. IMATS is one of the three components of the CDC Countermeasure Tracking Systems (CTS) program.

Background

During the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic event, public health agencies needed to monitor medical countermeasure inventory down to the local point of dispensing. This information was used to make critical decisions on allocating and distributing antiviral drugs and personal protective equipment. However, this information was very difficult to obtain, highlighting the need for a system that state and local public health departments could use to report countermeasure inventory.

As a result, the CDC Division of Strategic National Stockpile partnered with the CTS program in the CDC Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance to build the nationwide CDC Inventory Management and Tracking System. The vision of IMATS is to increase the capacity of all levels of public health to track and manage inventory of medical countermeasures during daily operations or an event requiring emergency response.

System Features

By collaborating with state and local partners, the CTS team developed IMATS system features that map to nine high-level inventory management business processes:

1. mobilization,
2. order/request resources,
3. approval of request,
4. receipt of inventory,
5. storing of inventory,
6. picking of order,
7. shipping of inventory/order,
8. dispensing of medical countermeasures, and
9. demobilization.

CDC developed IMATS by using significant input from state and local partners through Webinars to gather requirements, demonstrations, hands-on training, and usability testing. As a result of this input, the system allows public health agencies to track medical countermeasure inventory down to the local level during an event; monitor reorder thresholds; and support warehouse operations, including receiving, staging, and storing inventory. IMATS also supports data exchange and allow state public health agencies to collect inventory totals from local jurisdictions, aggregate the data, and report to CDC. CDC also allows public health jurisdictions using inventory systems other than IMATS to electronically report data to CDC. IMATS supports synchronizing data from offline deployments.

If you are interested in evaluating IMATS for use at your jurisdiction, please send an email to CTShelp@cdc.gov.

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IMATS Training Environment

The IMATS Training environment is identical in functionality to IMATS and can be used to conduct trainings and exercises with the system without having to use or modify live data. All users approved for access to IMATS are automatically approved for access to IMATS Training.

View the IMATS Fact Sheet.