Title :
A novel emergency telemedicine system based on wireless communication technology-AMBULANCE
Author :
Pavlopoulos, Sotiris ; Kyriacou, Efthyvoulos ; Berler, Alexis ; Dembeyiotis, Spyros ; Koutsouris, Dimitris
Author_Institution :
Lab. of Biomed. Eng., Nat. Tech. Univ. of Athens, Greece
Abstract :
Recent studies conclude that early and specialized prehospital management contributes to emergency case survival. We have developed a portable medical device that allows telediagnosis, long distance support, and teleconsultation of mobile healthcare providers by expert physicians. The device allows the transmission of vital biosignals and still images of the patient from the emergency site to the consultation site using the GSM mobile telephony network. The device can telematically "bring" an expert specialist doctor to the site of the medical emergency, allow him/her to evaluate patient data, and issue directions to the emergency personnel on treatment procedures until the patient is brought to the hospital. Legal reasons mandated the inclusion at the consultation site of a multimedia database able to store and manage the data collected by the system. The performance of the system has been validated in four different countries using a controlled medical protocol and a set of 100 patients per country treated has been collected and analyzed.
Keywords :
biomedical equipment; emergency services; medical diagnostic computing; medical signal processing; mobile communication; multimedia databases; patient care; patient diagnosis; patient treatment; portable computers; telemedicine; telephone networks; AMBULANCE; GSM mobile telephony network; controlled medical protocol; data management; data storage; early prehospital management; emergency case survival; emergency personnel; emergency telemedicine system; expert physicians; long distance support; medical emergency; mobile healthcare providers; multimedia database; patient data evaluation; patient treatment procedures; performance validation; portable medical device; specialized prehospital management; still image transmission; teleconsultation; telediagnosis; vital biosignal transmission; wireless communication technology; Biomedical imaging; Communications technology; Disaster management; GSM; Medical services; Medical treatment; Personnel; Telemedicine; Telephony; Wireless communication; Emergency Medical Services; Software; Telecommunications; Telemedicine;
Journal_Title :
Information Technology in Biomedicine, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/4233.737581
