Telemedicine-opportunity for improving survival likelihood during emergency medical services

Efficient information exchange is the principle on which successful pre-hospital patient care should be based, especially when emergency medical services (EMS) are being invoked. For quick arrival at the scene, clear and reliable information at the right time is often crucial for patient survival. All aspects of pre-hospital care require constant and efficient communications. In addition to using routine radio communications, the EMS team must organize and present patient information through spoken communications and in written reports. Voice transmission over radio channels can be limited because of weak signals or language problems, and it also needs human operators. This paper presents a prototype for data exchange over a radio network. Our prototype has shown that, by using it, we can simply, quickly and accurately transfer information over long distances.