In the high-pressure context of emergency medical services (EMS), timing is critical. Upon swiftly arriving at the incident location, the ability to recognize and assess the problem, coordinate patient care and transports and apply treatment can shift paradigms between life and death in cases such as instances of sudden cardiac arrest, traumatic injury due to a motor vehicle accident, incident of CVA (stroke) or a mass casualty event. Among other technological trends, Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as GPS/location-based technologies, are drastically reshaping this landscape. This article explores the use, benefits, challenges and potential future studies on these technologies.
Challenges faced by the medical emergency ambulances
Emergency medical responses include dispatching the call, patient location, ambulance (or alternate response unit) mobilization, transporting the patient to a hospital or trauma center, hand-off and treatment coordination and in some cases, responding to multiple casualties or through a disaster. Within the emergency medical response, many of the components of this chain historically have been manual, reactive and delayed for a variety of reasons, some examples are:
- Dispatchers are dependent on verbal descriptions and phone calls to locate a patient
- Ambulances lack current knowledge of hospital capacity, road conditions, or route delays
- When evidence of unclear medical presentations, responders may not have much support for decisions
- Ad hoc coordination may occur among hospitals, ambulance crew, dispatch, etc.
These challenges inevitably result in less than optimal response times and lower quality of outcome. However, technology advancements with both GPS/location-based technology and AI have the potential to change the landscape.
Role of GPS location technology in emergency response
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Locating responders and patients in real time
GPS tracking has dramatically changed emergency vehicles, ambulance and dispatch systems. The U.S. GPS.gov website states that "the ability to accurately identify and see the location of police, fire, rescue and other individual vehicles or boats has created a whole new way of doing business." For example, GPS tracking is now being implemented across fleets of ambulances in India. Just last month, a hospital outfitted all of its ambulances with real-time route optimisation and live GPS systems.
Here are some of the benefits:
- To know the exact location of every ambulance, in order to assign the closest unit when dispatch calls.
- Also, real-time tracking allows management of traffic, to recommend alternate routes.
- To track when each ambulance is in the system, so hospitals are aware of arrival time and can make plans that can start prior to arrival.
- To connect to other services (e.g., traffic police, other emergency vehicles) for coordination.
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Optimised routing and traffic management
In the present day, it's not just about knowing the location of vehicles involved in emergency services, but rather that modern systems utilize GPS, traffic data, sensors and mapping systems to enhance dispatch routing.
For example:
- Dispatch systems can determine which ambulance will arrive the quickest, rather than simply the closest.
- Ambulance drivers can be provided with navigation that accounts for traffic, road closures and accidents.
Some systems work directly with police and traffic management centres to facilitate "green corridors" which remove traffic so the ambulance can pass. For example, Gleneagles Global Health City in Chennai, India created a GPS-enabled ambulance tracker called "mSirenPilot" that gave traffic police the ability to monitor and assist the ambulances' progress.
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Improving patient location tracker and public alerts
Additionally, location technologies assist patients and observers in summoning help. For instance:
Instead of providing spoken location descriptions, a smartphone's GPS provides actual coordinates when the individual dials an emergency number. This cuts down on the delay.
Emergency personnel are automatically notified of a crash using position data captured via vehicle telematics, crash sensors, and GPS (such as the EU's e-Call program).
Wikipedia
Some apps help observers or family members to enhance situational awareness by allowing them to provide dispatchers with real-time location or incident photographs or videos (although it is not unlike other technologies).
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Application in remote and dangerous areas
GPS-enabled technologies, including drones, are under investigation in remote, rural, or disaster areas. A study paper entitled "GPS-based UAV for medical emergency application" discussed how the use of a GPS-enabled drone can deliver medical payloads - blood, medications, and first aid supplies - to remote locations.
How Artificial Intelligence has helped in transforming the emergency medical care
In the rapidly changing realm of healthcare, there may have been few inventions with as revolutionary a promise as artificial intelligence (AI). One of its many groundbreaking applications includes its use in emergency medicine. Especially when every second counts, AI is changing what is possible, from predicting cardiac arrests and optimizing ambulance routes to enhancing triage accuracy and facilitating lifesaving decisions in the emergency
Department.
Growing importance of AI in emergency medical response
Prompt assessment, prompt decision-making and accuracy under duress are fundamental aspects of emergency medicine. Unfortunately, patients, staff shortages and the need to make swift assessments based on limited information can overwhelm an already overstretched emergency department (ED). Because of these challenges integrating AI systems is becoming not only valuable but increasingly vital.
AI's strength is its ability to rapidly process and analyze very large amounts of data, identifying patterns and relationships that humans would potentially overlook. The ability to analyze information quickly leads to earlier diagnosis, improves workflow efficiencies, and ultimately leads to better patient outcomes in emergency medicine.
Integration of AI with GPS for smarter emergency medical response
GPS and AI have been two separate topics but the greatest advantages are seen at the intersection of these two areas:
AI can utilize up-to-date GPS information (vehicle locations, traffic, and patients' location) to suggest the next responding unit, change the routing and plan for delays. For example, ambulances with AI-based dynamic routing systems that utilise statistics on resources, location and traffic. The AI systems utilize GPS information to locate units, determine where to send them and generate statistics (response times, hotspots, coverage gaps). In short, AI tells us what to do and where to deploy, while GPS tells us where and when.
Improving communication and coordination
Emergency care relies on more than just timeliness and accuracy, but on seamless communication between first responders, emergency departments, and specialists. Artificial intelligence (AI) is supporting this engagement through integrated digital platforms that provide a safe and instantaneous transfer of patient information.
For instance, as an ambulance team inputs a patient’s vitals, EKG, and preliminary assessment into an AI-driven platform, the hospital can readily view this information in real time. The platform may offer clinical suggestions and even alert specialized teams, such as cardiologists or neurosurgeons, for timely intervention. This type of coordination minimizes delays and mistakes, which makes for effortless transitions in care and has a profound impact on patient outcomes.
Natural language processing (NLP) technologies are also providing tremendous support to emergency physicians through documentation automation. Voice recognition programming can transcribe a physician’s notes in those extremely busy and stressful contexts, allowing clinicians to prioritize patient care over paperwork. In emergency medicine, where time is arguably the most priceless commodity, these tools are so valuable.
Future of Emergency Medical Response
In the years to come, the AI-GPS integration is expected to intensify further. The development of 5G networks, drones for medical delivery, autonomous ambulances will make response systems more efficient in the future. Emergency medical services may soon deploy drones equipped with defibrillators or blood supplies to reach patients ahead of ambulances.
Along with the increasing sophistication of wearable health devices, smartwatches will intercept medical emergencies like heart attack and fall and automatically message the GPS coordinates of the wearer’s location to nearby EMS – starting action before the victim can call for help.
