A campus-wide mobile EMS information management system

Efficient information management is crucial for the timely administration of emergency medical services (EMS). In this paper, we describe a project to design and implement an automatic incident reporting and patient information management system for use by the EMS department at WPI, a small technological university. The EMS personnel are equipped with PDAs to access the system over a wireless LAN. Challenges faced in designing the system included compliance with new medical information regulations, provision of adequate security, interaction on small PDA screens, thin client software design, wireless networking and usability issues.