Trauma and 5G are seemingly an unlikely pair at first glance but when you take a closer look, the connection becomes less nebulous. In fact, 5G may be the final piece of a puzzle that saves lives and prevents other life altering injuries.
This puzzle begins with new mobile medical technologies which are evolving and being placed onto ambulances. However, these are not the ambulances that we’re familiar with today. Thanks to the underlying power of 5G, these vehicles are being transformed into connected ambulances and the point of care devices onboard are accelerating and transforming the treatment of traumatic injuries.
According to National Library of Medicine, trauma is currently the leading cause of death for individuals 46 years and younger in the United States. For Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), successful treatment of the victim relies on several factors which include:
- Information Availability: EMTs must be able to assess each victim’s unique condition and check for preexisting conditions while in the ambulance. EMTs must then be able to share these details with the nearest medical facility in order to quickly make the correct diagnosis and begin treatment while en-route. The further they are off the grid, the more challenging this information sharing becomes.
- Workforce Management: EMTs must be able to share full details about the patient’s condition during transport to ensure that the correct staff is on-sire and ready to treat the individual upon arrival. The inability to share these details can lead to a misalignment in the specialties of the staff which can ultimately impact care.
This is why 5G and its high bandwidth, low latency, and ultra-reliable connectivity is so vital. Under the best of circumstances, connectivity can be an issue that results in frequent communications breakdowns as well as challenges in exchanging critical patient information between the hospital and the vehicle. And the closer these ambulances move towards the edge of the network, the more impacted they become.
Now some of the same technologies powering new smart manufacturing plants and delivering us crystal clear, uninterrupted content on our smartphones, are enabling connected ambulances and in doing so transforming trauma care. At first glance today’s connected ambulance may look no different than what we’ve seen driving around for years. But the changes are significant with the arrival of new state-of-the-art, point- of-care diagnostic devices that are radically transforming static standard operating procedures (SOP).
These devices, which include ECG monitors, handheld ultrasound scanners, x-rays and portable MRIs, could not share data with 3G or 4G networks. But now thanks to 5G and cutting-edge IoT capabilities, these devices are all connected so massive amounts of data can be shared with medical teams in real-time, no matter how far away they may be. 5G also allows for 4K/8K video streaming to be used on the ambulances. As a result, all medical teams don’t just have access to data, they also have a visual of the patient.
Now, when an ambulance is dispatched, the process looks like the following:
- The trauma call is placed, and the ambulance arrives. Once on site, teams establish a video link with a trauma center where teams can conduct an initial assessment, determine the severity of the situation and then begin triage. Next, teams then determine which trauma center can best treat the patient-based location as well as the personal they have on staff and their availability at that time.
- While in transit, teams use handheld scanners in the ambulance to do an instant analysis which is then transmitted to the trauma center in real-time.
- The trauma center team quickly establishes care protocol based on that data as well as the patient’s history, the live video assessment and the scanned analysis.
- Recommendations are sent to the ambulance while teams continue to monitor the patient remotely via video will other members prepare for surgery.
All of this may seem very future looking but it’s happening today. One example is taking place at the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) and King’s College London. This facility has partnered with Ericsson to create a 5G-enabled ambulance that delivers many of the same capabilities that I touched on earlier but some additional life-saving innovations.
For example, in a demonstration, a clinician at the hospital was able to successfully guide their remote counterpart to perform a medical procedure remotely. The system in place included a high-definition camera that provided real time visual of the patient. Next, hospital clinician used a joystick to remotely guide the site team through the procedure.
While all of these advances will forever change the effectiveness of on-site care, there are some other elements that must be addressed. One is ensuring that these solutions are secure and easy to use while the vehicle in in transit. For example, a portable ultrasound device with a thumb operated scanner makes it quick and easy to activate while on-route.
Teams also need to ensure these devices are not only HIPAA compliant but are also interoperable with all existing workflows. This is critical as it helps to eliminate omission errors by removing the need manual data entry when transferring information from one system to another. It also provides a more efficient process while ensuring the information in all systems holding the patient information is completely accurate. This includes the EMRs, which helps to drive optimal outcomes during recovery.
New connected ambulances are designed to help prevent deaths by addressing the limitations of the vehicles we know today. Underlying these new capabilities will be 5G which enables the full breath of point-of-care devices to be realized and more and more trauma patients to receive the care needed regardless of where they are.
By Ram Rajagopalan, Senior Director – Med Device Industry Solutions Head Virtusa
About the Author
Ram heads the medical device and diagnostic industry solutions at Virtusa. He uses strategy and tactics to deliver on value-added solutions via in-house expertise, partnerships, and shared objectives. He is responsible for developing innovative strategies to expand the life science business at Virtusa.