Pre-hospital technology research: reflecting on a collaborative project between ambulance service and academia

Alasdair J Mort* (Corresponding Author), David Fitzpatrick, Anne Schneider, Philip Wilson, Chris Mellish

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The University of Aberdeen MIME project (Managing Information in Medical Emergencies) aimed to develop technology to support volunteer rural community first responders when managing patients. This can be a particularly stressful activity with many challenges to overcome while waiting for ambulance clinicians to arrive. The MIME system employed lightweight medical sensors streaming data (heart and respiratory rate, and blood oxygen saturation) wirelessly to a tablet computer. Novel software was developed to present these data on-screen in a simple way and facilitate the quick digital capture of first responder actions and observations. MIME also applied the technique of Natural Language Generation, which interrogated sensor data, user-inputted actions and observations to automatically generate a handover report in English. This paper describes the MIME system, and then focuses on our collaboration journey between academia and the Scottish Ambulance Service. We illustrate the challenges encountered during our research and development, and describe the academia-ambulance service collaboration model that was developed to deliver success. We also discuss the Knowledge Exchange sub-context to our research activities, which coincided with the early development of research capacity within the ambulance service.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)184-191
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Paramedic Practice
Volume7
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank all the Scottish Ambulance Service ambulance clinicians, community first responders, ambulance service managers, and healthcare experts who have contributed to our work. The research described here is supported by the award made by the RCUK Digital Economy programme to the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub; award reference: EP/G066051/1.

Keywords

  • Ambulance service
  • Community first responder
  • Cooperative behaviour
  • lInformatics
  • Pre-hospital emrgency care
  • Scotland

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