ProjectProposal-CharlesLee
From CS160 User Interfaces Fa06
Contents |
Target User Group: Response-Level Medical Workers - Ambulance Paramedics
Description
Emergency Medical Service Dispatchers respond to 911 calls. They might only have street-level experience. Their purpose is to give directions calmly, provide instructions, answer questions, and send Emergency Medical Service Providers. These providers may have from 40 to 1000+ hours of training, depending on the community [1]. Since the EMS providers' requirements are stricter than dispatchers' requirements (entirely inclusive, plus portability), we focus on EMS providers' requirements.
Needs
- Portability
- Always immediately available - No startup time
- Connectivity to medical databases
- Quick response
Wants
- Hard to make mistakes
- Intuitive usability
- Feedback
Problem Description: Medical Information - The Costs of Slowness or Errors
Every year, many deaths result from paramedic crews unable to quickly diagnose victims of medical emergencies and not knowing the victims' medical histories. First-response paramedics may be inexperienced or not have enough training to recognize situations where quick treatment could save lives or prevent serious degradation of the patient's status. This is compounded by the dangers of treating a patient before knowing about his potential allergies or other medications.
Problem Context and Forces: How We Can Improve Response Times and Medical Accuracy
Dispatchers already give information to the 911 dialer. This is based off of the dispatcher's medical training, which may or may not be extensive, or accurate. The accuracy and availability of responses can be augmented by quickly retrieving the medical history of the victim, as well as immediately looking up his symptoms and appropriate treatment from a medical database of sympotoms, with results displayed at the dispatcher's workstation. The dispatcher will also input information about the victim, whether name/age/location, or as vague as dental descriptions/ethnicity, and attempt to find an identity match.
At the response level, the EMS providers can examine the victim and provide further medical observations. These would be followed up immediately by the proper response to any emerging diagnosis, as well as the nearest hospital qualified to handle the patient's wounds. By this time, the identity and medical history of the victim may be known, allowing for immediate treatment without fear of allergic reaction. As well, details about the victim's medical status and treatment can be transmitted to the display in the ambulance.
Solution Sketch
Computing power and bandwidth are rapidly increasing, and can be harnessed to improve these problems. Emergency Medical Service dispatches and providers can fill out forms similar to paper or online forms, with each field tied to a database query. This information at the dispatch level can include physical location/address, symptoms, name, and age for the purpose of retrieving medical history and/or immediate treatment instructions. At the response-team level, this can include medical observations. Upon completion of a field, the information is immediately sent to a central control unit, which queries relevant database for diagnosis information and/or possible immediate treatments. A display will be available at every ambulance and dispatch receiver to provide instructions for immediate treatment if possible. These can be connected by wireless, cell phone connections, or land lines.
The time saved by immediately re-querying with each new bit of information, as opposed to an educated medical guess followed by a trip through traffic to a hospital for more qualified diagnosis and treatment, can be the crucial time necessary to save a life or a limb. The Anoto pen can be used to transmit information as it is discovered, and it will know what fields are being filled out by determining which page is being written on, and location of the writing on that page. Upon finding existance of possible immediate treatment, the Anoto pen can flash a light, and to prevent collecting repeated information already gleaned from database queries or given to other branches of the Emergency Medical Response, the pen will buzz when writing on an unneccessary field.
Graphical sketches to be scanned:
911 Caller
| ^
Call | |Instructions for caller
V |
Dispatcher <-- Display@workstation
| ^
| |
V |
Pen on Form --> Database
<--
pen feedback (lights indicate treatment, repeated-info buzz)
immedate treatment and directions
to nearest qualified treatment center
EMS Provider <-------------------------- Display@ambulance
| ^
| |
V |
Medical Observations via Pen on Form -----------> Database
<-----------
pen feedback (lights indicate treatment, repeated-info buzz)
References
http://www.nremt.org/about/ems_learn.asp
