New Technology Will Help Health Inspectors

Starting later this year, the health inspectors in Hopkinton, Ashland and Medway will have more technology at their fingertips to help them speed up their visits and get information processed quicker.

The three towns, headed by Ashland, recently applied for an innovation grant from the state that will pay for a tablet device that can be brought out to the different food service businesses so information on their inspection can be uploaded in real time.

“What we like about it is that it allows for the town to conduct inspections and collect the data to an electronic device that sends it to our servers where it will then be available instantly,” Town Manager Norman Khumalo said.

Ed Wirtanen is the public health administrator in Hopkinton; Wirtanen said he thinks the new tools will help the town a lot.

“Hopefully having this tool will help is create more uniform reports and give us a few extra minutes in the day,” Wirtanen said.

The technology for these tools is relatively new, and Wirtanen said no other towns in the area are using it.

“We’re essentially doing a pilot program, the three towns have a wide enough variety of businesses in the food service industry that we can see any flaws,” Wirtanen said. “What we learn about the technology we can share with other towns that are interested in doing something similar.”

The list of software manufacturers is currently narrowed down to three, and a decision is expected to be made on the final version in April.