Like many others, I was impressed and inspired by the work of the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District to develop a location-based application to alert CPR volunteers when a heart-attack victim is nearby. But what about other life-threatening injuries and medical issues? How else can we use technology to help provide better medical care in time to save more lives?
One way is to provide doctor-quality care before patients ever arrive at the hospital, through the hands of EMTs. HP and telemedicine provider LifeBot are using technology originally developed for the U.S. Army to provide an ambulance-to-hospital solution delivered through the HP Slate 500 that gives doctors an unprecedented amount of medical data about the state of the injured or sick patient in the ambulance.
The Lifebot EMS solution was developed in conjunction with the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command (USAMRMC) through its Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC). Check out more information on the solution from LifeBot and HP in the post below:
(Originally posted to HP’s The Next Bench)
Ambulance 2.0: Bringing Doctor-Quality Care to Ambulances
In the back of an ambulance, every second counts. So imagine that as paramedics race down the street, they can whip out a tablet to help analyze symptoms while a physician at the hospital can help give virtual triage. Touch and tablet technologies are paving the way for some amazing new solutions in healthcare and I recently saw how HP and LifeBot are working to remotely speed up emergency treatment.
LifeBot, an Arizona-based company specializing in telemedicine, is revolutionizing speed of care by enabling EMTs to send video, voice and streamed medical data from the ambulance to doctors back at the hospital. They use the HP Slate 500 to help make this all possible.
Here’s how it works: Inside an ambulance, paramedics wear head-mounted cameras and carry the lightweight 1.5-pound HP Slate. The Slate’s touchscreen allows paramedics to easily input critical medical information while other cameras mounted in the ambulance can be remotely controlled by physicians back at the hospital. There, physicians can use HP TouchSmarts or HP digital signage to draw “play-by-play” on the screen to help EMTs provide better care.
The LifeBot and HP-based solution, on display at HIMSS 2011 last month, simulates how doctors can interact with EMTs from their hospital office. You’ve already seen some pictures here, but you can view more photos from our FLCKR album, or just check out the LifeBot Slate in action:
What other cool applications are you seeing at doctor offices, labs or hospitals?
this should be spreading across the country. Why isn’t HP, CISCO, HHS, the VA etc teaming up on something like this Nation wide? How many ER trips would improve, becoming more efficient and effective?
Thanks Isiah – I agree that it would be great if this technology catches on across the country! As Dr. Duke says in the video above, it’s only a matter of time before technology like this becomes commonplace.