Related Items
First Responders Not First for I.T.
April 2007
After 32 years as a paramedic, Kevin McGinnis is still waiting for the information technology revolution to make inroads into his profession. "Our communications technology has not changed significantly in the past 30 years," says McGinnis, who works at Winthrop (Maine) Emergency Medical Services.
But McGinnis, a former state emergency medical services director and currently a program advisor at the National Association of State EMS Officials, sees big changes coming to the field soon.
Today, he estimates 98% of communication between paramedics, dispatchers, hospitals and others is by voice. Industry research, however, suggests that number will fall to 70% within five years, with 30% of communication being done via electronic data, he notes.
In recent years, a number of software vendors have offered information systems that enable the creation of the "run reports" emergency service personnel need to complete after every patient encounter. Run reports generally are done on paper forms with a copy left at the hospital and a copy brought back to the paramedic's base office.
Now, some ambulance services have software on computers in the office and on paramedics' laptops, enabling completion of the reports and downloading to a database. But in many cases the hospital still gets a paper copy. In other cases, the hospital has the software on a dedicated computer, which enables the information from paramedics to go into the patient record, and the base office gets a printed copy.
So, while progress is being made, the software often is automating only part of the manual report creation process. What excites McGinnis is the potential for I.T. to play an integral role in the field treatment of patients. "Now is a tipping point for the EMS industry," he says. "EMS is going from paper to electronic data collection and there will be pressure from hospitals to transmit the data to them."
In Congress, there is movement to bring emergency medical service workers and other first responders into the information age (see story, page 48). The American Health Information Community, a federal advisory group chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, is encouraging development of a standards-based electronic emergency health record. Further, standards development organization Health Level Seven, Ann Arbor, Mich., is developing applicable standards for that health record.
McGinnis' message to the first responder community: "It's a watershed moment."
Bridging the gap
For decades, voice and data have been separate entities in the emergency department medical services field, McGinnis says.
But efforts to bring first responders into the information age are leading to work to converge voice and data communications.
For instance, McGinnis' ambulance has a VHF radio, UHF radio, cell phone and satellite phone, the latter of which he calls "extremely expensive" to use.
McGinnis uses whatever device he needs to get a good connection to dispatchers or an emergency physician from wherever he is. What he wants is a single, all-in-one device with all four technologies embedded and with buttons that provide direct links to various hospitals. "During a cardiac arrest, I want to hit a button that says 'Hospital X' and a single radio searches for the best means of transmission."
Work is being done on several fronts to bring such technology to paramedics and other first responders. The SDR Forum, an association that promotes the development of software defined radio technology, is bringing together stakeholders to develop next-generation radio communications.
I.T. Spotlights
- About Us
- Advertising/Media Kit
- Reprints
- Editorial Calendar
- Contact Us
- Customer Service
- Privacy Statement
©2008 HealthDataManagement and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
SourceMedia is an Investcorp company.
Use, duplication, or sale of this service, or data contained herein, is strictly prohibited.
