Technologies for Mobility Saving Lives in Emergency Medical Services
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| A doctor at work with a new system for medical information sharing |
A pilot phase of “Mobility for Life“ medical project has just ended in City of Prague Emergency Medical Service in Czech Republic. New technologies designed for emergency vehicles shortened the period of patient´s reception to a hospital by 20 % along with significant time-savings on emergency-related administration.
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC, 2009 – City of Prague Emergency Medical Service has introduced the results of “Mobility for Life” project´s pilot phase that uses mobile technologies for critical time savings in emergency medical services. The goal of the project was to prove both life-saving and economical benefits of mobile ICT technologies that are connecting in-vehicle computers with eHealth databases and medical facilities.
The core of the project, carried out in cooperation among KTTP, Intel, Panasonic, IZIP and YMS Group, lies in installation of mobile devices for both drivers and rescuers, their GSM/GPRS/3G connectivity and two-way cross-linking to various third party eHealth information system. In this pilot phase KTTP provided rescuers with toughbooks with internet connectivity and specialized software for medical reports´ recording. These urgent-medicine reports are given to hospital staff in printed form while patient is being accepted to a hospital.
“Prague hospitals accept 8.500 patients from Emergency Medical Service every month, 2.000 of them from vehicles of urgent medicine. With usage of modern mobile technologies we can save 5 minutes on every acceptation of patient to a hospital that combined with number of patients saves a good deal of time. Mistake reduction, coming hand-in-hand with an introduction of printed forms instead of hand-written ones significantly affects accuracy of patients´ treatment,” says Zdenek Schwarz, Director of City of Prague Emergency Medical Service.
Future phases of projects will enable rescuers to send reports on-line to patient´s destination before actual arrival to it but, more importantly, will allow rescuers to access data on-line in system IZIP – Internet-based Access to Medical Records of Patients, and to further systems (foreign eHealth databases, card processors).
Ambulance drivers are equipped with YMS Group´s in-car PC with touchscreen display that allows them to communicate with dispatching, send out GPS positions, to accept given instructions and navigation coordinates with automatic start of navigation to the place of an accident.
Project was in pilot phase since October 2008 until now to assure flawless usage of system that has direct impact on quality of rescue services. Pavel Trnka, Director of KTTP responsible for implementation of the project, confirms success: “With direct access to health insurance companies´ records we save 15 minutes of back-office workers´ time usually spent on document correction. Having 2.000 patients every month makes it 500 hours of saved time that can be spent on other improvements.”
In the near future this system, dubbed as GEmMA (General Emergency Medical Analysis), will be interconnected to further information systems, which will enable rescuers to get vitally important information right on the spot of an accident. Pilot phase is considered as exceptionally successful in both economic and functional domains with ROI in about 12 months.
Based on this success Prague´s municipal government promised further financial support in roll-out of project in width of functionality and also number of vehicles equipped with this life-saving system.
About KTTP
KTTP Ltd. was founded in 2003 with the goal of providing complex development and consulting for ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in health services. Recently KTTP is a system integrator and producer of GEmMA (General Emergency Medical Analysis) system for City of Prague Emergency Medical Service in Czech Republic. System integration by the vision of KTTP is complex service of software and hardware integration to a complex system. More info at www.kttp.cz/indexENG.asp
About Intel
Intel Software provides resources, technologies, products and services developers need to create innovative products and industry-leading software solutions designed to run best on Intel platforms. Additional information is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.
About YMS Group
YMS Group is a reputable creator of technical information systems, solutions for Fleet Controlling, administration of mobile resources and other systems with added geographical information (LBS, GIS). The company is leader of Fleet Controlling telematic platform with its yTrack complex solution for management and controlling of fleets and machinery. Solution from YMS Group enables them to control vehicle, personnel, transportation costs and driving times; provides them with two-way communication and data exchange tools. yTrack solution is designed for international transportation and construction companies with large fleet of vehicles and machinery, for fleet of emergency vehicles, municipality services, etc. More info at www.ymsgroup.com/en or infoCZ@ymsgroup.com.
About IZIP
IZIP Corp. is specialized in eHealth using the latest technologies available. IZIP system (Internet-based Access to Medical Records of Patient) represents set of patient´s medical information consolidated in form of EHB (Electronic Health Book) accessible via internet. Thanks to EHB it is easier to get objective and actual information about patient´s state of health regardless of location: in General Practitioner´s office, in hospital room or emergency vehicle. It all speeds up examinations and prevents from duplicities in both records and examinations. Using access to IZIP in emergency vehicles it can significantly improve evaluation of patient´s state of health and save lives.
IZIP system is greatly appreciated in wider pan-European context being chosen as referential project for usage within EU bringing benefits to doctors, patients and last but not least to health insurance companies.
Tomas Jaros
Marketing Communication Manager
Tel.:+420 226 238 277
Email: tomas.jaros@ymsgroup.com
YMS Czech Republic, spol.s r.o.
CIMEX building
Na Pankraci 1062/58
140 00 Prague 4
Czech Republic