# Biophone



## Rescue51

Do paramedics still use biophones, and are they still like the ones on "Emergency!", or are they more techy now??

~Rescue51


----------



## fast65

No, no we do not. We don't usually call the hospital to ask about treatments, we have a set of standing orders dictating what we can and cannot do, and we have quite a broad range of treatments compared to what you've seen on Emergency. 

That being said, we do on occasion, still have to call the hospital for orders, and we can use the radio or our cell phones for that.


----------



## medicdan

... A lot has changed since the mid 1970s, and trust me, we do have advanced communication technologies. I'd venture to guess you have a modern day "biophone" in your pocket right now. 
In all seriousness, many areas have moved away from "mother may I" medicine, and paramedics function on standing orders allowing them to use many of the treatments in their arsenal without on-line medical control approval. 

With that said, we do have the ability to communicate with the hospital for consultation with a physician (generally an attending trained in EMS protocols), Entry Notes (letting the hospital know we're en route, with a broad sense of patient presentation, facility dependent), and/or for approval for rarely-used or complicated treatments. 

We have the ability to communicate verbally with the hospital by cell phone (generally on a dedicated, recorded line), via radio (in my area, coordinated through a central "CMED" dispatcher), and with telemetry (also region specific). Paramedics generally interpret live cardiac rythms, and in some areas need to transmit 12-lead electrocardiograms for ED/Cardiology interpretation of an ST-Elevation MI (Heart Attack). 
For that, we generally use cell phone data connections or the internet.

Beginning a few years ago, the NEMSIS data requirements became standard in many areas, so more services are moving to electronic patient care reporting solutions (as opposed to paper reports, not seen on Emergency), and EDs generally get a faxed report within a few minutes of the crew finishing, whether they're still at the ED or not. 

I know it's hard to believe, but the TV show you idolize is not a perfect picture of pre-hospital care, and a lot has changed in the years since it went off the air.

Good Luck!


----------



## Rescue51

emt.dan said:


> ... A lot has changed since the mid 1970s, and trust me, we do have advanced communication technologies. I'd venture to guess you have a modern day "biophone" in your pocket right now.
> In all seriousness, many areas have moved away from "mother may I" medicine, and paramedics function on standing orders allowing them to use many of the treatments in their arsenal without on-line medical control approval.
> 
> With that said, we do have the ability to communicate with the hospital for consultation with a physician (generally an attending trained in EMS protocols), Entry Notes (letting the hospital know we're en route, with a broad sense of patient presentation, facility dependent), and/or for approval for rarely-used or complicated treatments.
> 
> We have the ability to communicate verbally with the hospital by cell phone (generally on a dedicated, recorded line), via radio (in my area, coordinated through a central "CMED" dispatcher), and with telemetry (also region specific). Paramedics generally interpret live cardiac rythms, and in some areas need to transmit 12-lead electrocardiograms for ED/Cardiology interpretation of an ST-Elevation MI (Heart Attack).
> For that, we generally use cell phone data connections or the internet.
> 
> Beginning a few years ago, the NEMSIS data requirements became standard in many areas, so more services are moving to electronic patient care reporting solutions (as opposed to paper reports, not seen on Emergency), and EDs generally get a faxed report within a few minutes of the crew finishing, whether they're still at the ED or not.
> 
> I know it's hard to believe, but the TV show you idolize is not a perfect picture of pre-hospital care, and a lot has changed in the years since it went off the air.
> 
> Good Luck!



Cool!!! I had a feeling biophones weren't used, but I wasn't sure. Thanks!!!


----------



## Rescue51

fast65 said:


> No, no we do not. We don't usually call the hospital to ask about treatments, we have a set of standing orders dictating what we can and cannot do, and we have quite a broad range of treatments compared to what you've seen on Emergency.
> 
> That being said, we do on occasion, still have to call the hospital for orders, and we can use the radio or our cell phones for that.



Thank you!!!^_^


----------



## Aidey

WTF is a biophone?


----------



## NomadicMedic

Aidey said:


> WTF is a biophone?



It was the Orange Box UHF radio that Johnny and Roy used to contact OLMC at Rampart on the TV show Emergency.


----------



## firetender

n7lxi said:


> It was the Orange Box UHF radio that Johnny and Roy used to contact OLMC at Rampart on the TV show Emergency.


 
Biophone was the Orange Box's(Motorola APCOR) father. It was actually a radio-transmitter/receiver/telemetry unit that you could have voice communication with a physician WHILE you ran a Three-lead EKG through it.


----------



## Rescue51

firetender said:


> Biophone was the Orange Box's(Motorola APCOR) father.



:rofl::rofl:


----------



## mycrofft

*Not too shabby.*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biophone
15 min recharge time, remote/little  or vehicle/big antenna use. NOT programmable, you plugged in crystals for each freq. 
However, probably short range, initially no relay capability through vehicle, and NiCad batteries have their own set of issues.
.....
Remember, Johnny and Roy had no transport capability. It was them and the doctor, so a phone was very important.

PS: I worked where we had acoustic coupler modems to send out EKG's (warbling analog tone) via standard phone landline to an EKG interp company as late as 1999.


----------



## NomadicMedic

As I understand it, the LA County Telemetry radio system was rather robust. The Biophone was originally built with a 5 watt portable radio as the guts, and then was later upgraded to a 30 watt RF deck. The system was repeater based, so reception was decent in most areas of the county and there was a mag mount antenna that the medic could stick on the outside of the ambulance if he needed.

As a side note, when Motorola started making the 12 watt APCOR (Advanced Portable Coronary Observation Radio), they thought the orange box was a County mandate, so they produced the radio in an orange box. Later, most were in white cases.






 The APCOR






 The Biophone from Emergency.






 The original Biphone that was on Rescue 59.


----------



## Martyn

n7lxi said:


> It was the Orange Box UHF radio that Johnny and Roy used to contact OLMC at Rampart on the TV show Emergency.


 Showing your age now...


----------



## Rescue51

n7lxi said:


> The original Biphone that was on Rescue 59.



Rescue 59??? If you're talking about Emergency!, it was Rescue 51


----------



## AnthonyM83

Rescue51 said:


> Do paramedics still use biophones, and are they still like the ones on "Emergency!", or are they more techy now??
> 
> ~Rescue51



That seems to be about the only change since then in Los Angeles. They still call in on every ALS run with a full report and get back basic orders. Daily, you can hear them saying, "Copy that Harbor, O2, IV TKO, and monitoring. We'll re-contact if anything changes."


----------



## NomadicMedic

Rescue51 said:


> Rescue 59??? If you're talking about Emergency!, it was Rescue 51



No. In 1969 Squad 59 was the first paramedic unit in LA County. 

http://www.emsmuseum.org/virtual-mu...9752-1969-Los-Angeles-Area-Paramedic-Programs


----------



## mycrofft

Is 59 eight better than 51?

Harbor's still open?? Mercy mercy...


----------



## Rescue51

n7lxi said:


> No. In 1969 Squad 59 was the first paramedic unit in LA County.
> 
> http://www.emsmuseum.org/virtual-mu...9752-1969-Los-Angeles-Area-Paramedic-Programs



Oh!! Cool!


----------



## bstone

Rampart, this is Squad 51.


----------



## Matthew Lamson

Rescue51 said:


> Do paramedics still use biophones, and are they still like the ones on "Emergency!", or are they more techy now??
> 
> ~Rescue51


My Fire Department still uses biophones


----------



## NomadicMedic

My department uses iPhones. 

Although we do have a talk group on the radio that goes directly to the hospital ED which I like to use pretty often. It helps me channel my inner Johnny Gage.


----------



## Summit

We call it the Biophone... it's just calling the a dedicated recorded line in the ED with your cell phone.


----------



## Akulahawk

Not bad opening an old thread... 

Things certainly have improved a LOT in the tech/radio world since the Biophone was created. It's not unheard of (by far) for your Monitor to be able to do basic monitoring, 12-lead (or more) ECG, NIBP, SpO2, and oh so much more... and relay that info right into your EHR system you use to write your reports as well as have much of that data be sent real-time to the receiving facility. 

There's certainly room for improvement, but what's already available is just short of jaw-dropping amazing compared to what was available just 15 years ago! Oh, and the stuff we could do back then was jaw-dropping amazing compared to what Johnny and Roy (and real folks of that era) were doing.


----------



## Matthew Lamson

DEmedic said:


> My department uses iPhones.
> 
> Although we do have a talk group on the radio that goes directly to the hospital ED which I like to use pretty often. It helps me channel my inner Johnny Gage.


I wish I could use my phone but "fire department requirment" says that a record "must" be kept of patient care.


----------



## NomadicMedic

Matthew Lamson said:


> I wish I could use my phone but "fire department requirment" says that a record "must" be kept of patient care.



The ED doesn't tape calls?


----------



## Matthew Lamson

DEmedic said:


> The ED doesn't tape calls?


I don't know, but I'm on a rescue squad and they make me use a biophone witch works alright considering its 30 years old but the hospital wants to keep record of patient care. I think we should stop using biophones because they are the worst way of communication to the hospital especially when we work out of the only hospital in Mooresville actually the 3rd hospital in Iredell county and our county only has 3 and the hospital serves ALL OF SOUTH IREDELL COUNTY and the hospital only has 5 treatment rooms and only 2 biophone reseivers.


----------



## ggodsoe

This is a fascinating thread. I found this forum when I was looking up some info on how different modern paramedic practices are from what I saw on Emergency as a kid and from Netflix. My daughter and I have been watching seasons 5 and 6. The first time she saw the biophone she scoffed and pulled out her cell phone. It's hard for a teenager today to believe that the biophone was pretty cutting edge in its day. I'd love to find one for sale and buy it. Of course my wife will ask me why and I won't be able to come up with a better answer than nostalgia. I was thinking of dressing up as Roy or John for a cosplay outfit, but I thought that would be too obscure. 

Another thing that she noticed that was different for her was the absence of 911. She asked me how I had to dial for the the police and fire and I told her we had to actually call them. I remember we had stickers next to our Ma Bell rotary phone until 911 was installed. When was 911 installed for LA County?  I know this question is OT but I am just curious.

Oh, and what the heck is so special about Ringers?  I guess I could look that up on my own but I hoping a SME here can answer that. 

Just about every rescue on Emergency goes vitals-biophone-ringers/tko-transport.  It seems like a boring recipe it it worked for 6 seasons...


----------



## RedAirplane

I was slightly alarmed to notice that they called the doctor to ask for permission to shock V-Fib in the pilot episode.

Especially because in a later episode it becomes clear that Johnny & Roy know a lot about medicine and when communications fail they just do the same stuff anyway...!?!?!?


----------



## Tigger

My AMR place has an 800 radio in back with a phone handset for a mic, does that count? Also, I don't know how to use it. That's what the portable is for.

The city also maintains the "paramedic hotline" which is one number for all the hospitals, "press one for Memorial Central, press two for..." It's recored and it's nice to have just one number.


----------

