Abstract
Patients in critical condition need Physician’s supervision while they are in transit to the hospital. If the ambulance is linked to the emergency room, the physician can monitor patient’s vital signs and issue instructions to the paramedics for stabilizing the patient. When a disaster strikes, scores of people are transferred to the hospital in ambulances. During an emergency situation, the number of patients in critical condition reaches overwhelming proportions. In this chapter, we discuss the state of the art in transferring emergency medical data from the disaster site or ambulance to the hospital and outline some case studies. We present a scheme called MEDTOC (Medical Data Transmission Over Cellular Network) for transferring in-ambulance multiple patients’ data to the hospital by UMTS. This system enables the transfer of vital signs to the hospital in reduced and packed format using limited bandwidth wireless network. Medical data can be transmitted over 3G cellular network using various modes and quality of service parameters available in UMTS. This could help the physicians in monitoring several patients who are either in transit or at a triage unit on a disaster site. Results of the application of data reduction algorithm over CAN packets and feasibility studies in transfer of data over UMTS are presented and discussed.
TopEmergency Medical Data Transmission Techniques
This section gives an overview of the various emergency medical data transmission techniques that have either been proposed or reported in literature As reported in (Kyriacou et. al. 2007), a literature search shows that the work done in wireless transmission techniques of emergency medical data can broadly be divided into GSM/GPRS, 3G, satellite and wireless LAN. Further, majority of the work focuses on the GSM/GPRS network while a lot of others use wireless LAN to transmit data. Very limited work is available in categories of 3G and satellites. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) have also been proposed for handling emergency medical data at the prehospital stage and a few systems have also been developed, for example, see (Fontelo et. al. 2003) and (Bolaños et. al. 2004).
Key Terms in this Chapter
CAN-enabled medical equipment: Medical equipment which inject medical data over a CAN bus.
Emergency Medical Data: Patients’ vital medical records.
Emergency Medical Data: Patients’ vital medical records.
Vital Biosignals: 3–12 lead EKG, SPO2, NIBP, IBP, Temperature.
OPNET Application: Application of OPNET simulation software.
Medical Data Network: In-Ambulance data network to carry patients’ medical data.
Aggregated Data Transmission: A technique to transfer data after aggregating multiple data samples.
UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, a mobile phone technology which will include Internet access, video and SMS along with traditional phone services.
UMTS: Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, a mobile phone technology which will include Internet access, video and SMS along with traditional phone services.
OPNET Application: Application of OPNET simulation software.
Medical Data Network: In-Ambulance data network to carry patients’ medical data.
CAN Protocol: Controller Area Network protocol originally designed for Automotive application, which allows data communication in the form of short messages over a serial bus.
CAN-enabled medical equipment: Medical equipment which inject medical data over a CAN bus.
Aggregated Data Transmission: A technique to transfer data after aggregating multiple data samples.
Vital Biosignals: 3–12 lead EKG, SPO2, NIBP, IBP, Temperature.
CAN Protocol: Controller Area Network protocol originally designed for Automotive application, which allows data communication in the form of short messages over a serial bus.