A Gsm-based Mobile System for Emergency Telemedicine -“ambulance”

Recent studies conclude that early and specialized prehospital management contributes to emergency case survival. Ambulance personnel, who usually are the first to handle emergency situations, do not have the required theoretical knowledge and experience. Financial and practical reasons do not allow the participation of specialized physicians on ambulance vehicles. We have developed a portable medical device that allows telediagnosis, long distance support and teleconsultation of mobile health care providers by specialized physicians. The device allows the transmission of vital biosignals and still images of the patient from the incident place to the hospital. The transmission is performed through the GSM mobile telecommunication network, standard spread out all over the E.C. countries. The device can telematically “bring” a specialist doctor at the site of a medical emergency, allow him to evaluate patient data and issue directions to the emergency personnel on treatment procedures until the patient is brought to hospital. Due to the need of storing and archiving data being interchanged during the telemedicine sessions, we have equipped the consultation site with a multimedia database able to store and manage the data collected by the “AMBULANCE” system. The performance of the system has been validated in four different countries using a controlled medica protocol.