Live video from ambulance to ED

Attention editors of technology and general-interest publications: Hospitals & Health Networks this month has a short InBox item I wrote about live video links from ambulances to emergency departments and trauma centers. Emergency medical services in Tucson, Ariz., and, more recently, Baton Rouge, La., make use of municipal Wi-Fi networks to triage and diagnose trauma cases before patients even arrive.

This is a story I’ve known about for more than a year and a half and only recently, when Baton Rouge turned the first piece of what soon will be a parish-wide system, did any editor, HHN Senior Editor Matthew Weinstock, show interest in this story. All he had the room or budget for was this 450-word InBox item, though.

If you believe the telemedicine experts I interviewed, this kind of technology may become the norm in urban and suburban areas within a few years, and that, IMHO, makes it worth a much longer feature story in a publication that reaches beyond healthcare. There was some MSM coverage of the Baton Rouge launch, but nothing that examined the big picture.

I toured an ambulance and got a live demonstration of the technology when I was in Tucson in February, and have leads on other municipalities that are considering such a system, plus some cities that are using different technologies to achieve the same results. I’ve got photos, too.

Editors, I await your call.