Citation

Alm AM, Gao T, White DM. AMIA Annu. Symp. Proc. 2006; 2006: 842.

Affiliation

Johns Hopkins University, Rockville, MD 20853, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, American Medical Informatics Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

17238462

PMCID

PMC1839350

Abstract

Transportation officers at mass casualty incidents arefaced with the daunting task of tracking large amounts of patients as they leave the disaster scene. Patients often leave under their own power without notifying any authorities, presenting a problem for personnel attempting to account for every patient they have treated. This paper describes a system of tracking patients at a disaster scene or en route to hospitals using electronic triage tags registered with an external database.

Background: A major challenge for disaster response informationsystems is to provide capabilities without being obtrusiveto the already overburdened responders. The AdvancedHealth and Disaster Aid Network (AID-N) has developed electronic triage tags that provide ubiquitous and automated geolocation of patients in both indoor and outdoor settings. When patients are tagged with electronic triage tags, they are automatically tracked by the software system, no additional input from the medics is required. The tags, based upon the smart dust hardware platform, are small, lightweight, easy to apply, and cost-effective for easy employment at mass casualty disasters. Unlike GPS-based tracking technologies, the setags are low-power and do not require a clear line of sight. To this end, AID-N provides a sophisticatedpatient tracking mechanism that meets the needs of theemergency responders.

Implementation: After any MCI, emergency response services are required to account for any patients they registered at the disaster scene. The current system requires a transportation officer at the scene to fill out a form with patient details and destination information each time a patient is put inan ambulance. However, during a chaotic disaster scene,the overwhelmed responders often neglect to fill out the paperwork or lose the paperwork. Under our new system, all of the patient locality logging is electronic and automated. Emergency personnel can now locate any patient from a MCI in real-time, instead of waiting until after the MCI is concluded.The location of patients wearing tags is based on theproximity of the tags to: 1) handheld device carried by nomadic medics, 2) base stations laptops installed inside ambulances coming in and out of the disaster site, 3)laptops stationed at designated zones of the disaster site,and 4) other tags in the wireless mesh network. Each base station and handheld device is equipped with a GPS sensor.

Language: en