Putting a virtual doctor in the ambulance

MMiz

MMiz

I put the M in EMTLife
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Putting a virtual doctor in the ambulance

A new ambulance communications system will enable doctors to diagnose and begin treating critically ill patients before they reach hospital.

Diagnosing and treating a critically ill or injured patient as early as possible can mean the difference between life and death. A new communications system between a moving ambulance and its hospital base allows the simultaneous transmission of bandwidth-hungry video and ultra-sonic images, telephone communications and patient data, all at the same time.

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I attended a lecture earlier this year by a neurologist. He said at somepoint they may have CT scanners in the ambulance with the info broadcasted back to the hospital. It would reduce ER waits because the test would not have to be performed in house. The radiologist can work on it immediately and ER doc give info to the ambulance crew.

Very interesting stuff.
 
Sounds good for city use but do you think they could boost the signal a bit for us out in the sticks?
It would be amazing to see what ems will come to in the next decade, look at what has happened to it in just the past 30 some odd years, now we need more education and recognition to go with the advances in technology and medicine
B)
 
zacdav89 said:
Sounds good for city use but do you think they could boost the signal a bit for us out in the sticks?
It would be amazing to see what ems will come to in the next decade, look at what has happened to it in just the past 30 some odd years, now we need more education and recognition to go with the advances in technology and medicine
B)
Click to expand...

satellites baby!
 
aw man...im gonna lose my job to a computer.
 
well, not saying this is a bad idea, but I can't really think of much aside from the video aspect that we don't already have. I believe (don't quote me on this) that the Zoll monitors we use have bluetooth capability and can transmit just about everything you can see on the monitor screan to wherever you want. We also have med controll for all the hospitals on speed dial, and between those 2 things, it seems to me that we already have a lot of this technology and we just don't utilize it the best we can. Honestly, the first thing I thought of when I read that was Johnny and Roy talking to Rampart and sending strips via the big orange phone.
 
I hear ya MikeRi!

EMS math:
1. Take a tally of each type of calls (diagnoses after transport).
2. For the most common, totalling 90% of calls, work out a tx algorithm including timeline. (In other words, how many pts are being seen who will benefit from which treatments in what time frames).
3. Look at run times to figure out what response time is from certain points to the hospital, not counting on-scene non-moving tx.
4. (Mental postit note: the more critical a field tx pt is the more costly for the hosp to tx, and the less likely they will recoup their losses).

SO.....
1. Most cases won't benefit from that level of field dx unless there is delay, such as disaster, and then you have to have the tx to meet the enhanced dx. (i.e., if you discover the dyspnea is due to cystic fibrosis, what realistic difference will it make?).
2. ER's and their hospitals won't want these cases because they are financial timebombs. (This is a deja vue from the mid Seventies when everyone was getting a MICU and then ditching it because it was a gaping hole to pour money down).
3. Rural areas will have the longest transport delay and hence benefit most from onsite dx/tx, but they are least likely to have the tax dollars and organic talent (people living there with training and experience) to make use of these advanced diagnostics.

They invented a portable handheld xray for the space shuttle called a Lixiscope. Don''t see those in amblances since 1980. So-called "C-arm" fluroscopes are a little bigger and more useful, would fit in 1/2 of a modular, but not sent into the field. Anything with xrays requires beaucoup and ongoing training, vertification, film badge monitoring, lead shielding. Anything with precision (CT scanners notable so far) on the road gets out of alignment and stops working properly after a short time.
 
just to add to the above: honestly, theres enough hospitals where I'm at that usually by the time we get the basic workup done on a pt and get our basic information and some preliminary treatment, we are either at the hosiptal or withing a 2 or 3 minutes of being there anyway.
 
Wouldn't work in my area (maybe the whole state of IL)
... No vollie or POC service could afford such technology...
The full time services are minutes from the ER and don't have time to do much more then take a set of vitals and do a rapid exam.
 
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