Contribution to the Definition of a New Type of More Technological Ambulance: Use Case of French Civil Security Ambulances

Abstract

Emergency operations are on the rise today due to the different types of emergencies encountered, which include crises, accidents, natural disasters, and suicides. This increase can lead to problems in coordination and communication between those involved in an emergency operation. In addition, emergency services have independent medical devices, which are sometimes redundant; however, there is a lack of devices for taking suitable actions in heterogeneous environments (urban, rural, mountains). Therefore, it would be interesting to redesign ambulance services to take account of these issues. These improvements concern two objectives. First, to provide an optimal response to the victim during an emergency operation. Second, to facilitate the exchanges between all people involved from the initial order to the arrival at the hospital. This paper focuses on and illustrates a solution to simplify exchanges between first-aid workers in the field and medical practitioners in the hospital during emergency operations. In particular, it analyzes interoperability at the outset of the conception of a system that helps to exchange quickly and efficiently information for a medical emergency.

Handling effective communication to support awareness in rescue operations

“…Yet, in most of the countries, communication during rescue operations is still limited to oral communication using radio devices. Regarding the French case, despite the large number of existing communication systems that are oriented for rescue actors (Appligos, n.d.‐a; Mallek et al., 2016; Nomadeec, n.d. ; Séguret, 2018; Sis, n.d.‐a, n.d.‐b; Systel, n.d.…”

“…; TplSystemes, n.d. ), recent statistics show that the majority of information exchange is still oral (Mallek et al., 2016). Indeed, most of the existing systems are not fully accepted by actors since they are limited to some functionalities or are developed without examining the real needs of actors.…”

“…However, medical information about victims, which is an important parameter in rescuing, was not considered in this system. Similarly, Mallek, Sauvagnargues, Tena-Chollet, Charrel, and Arnaud (2016) proposed an information exchange system to be implemented in French ambulances. The objective of this solution was to facilitate exchanges between medical regulators in hospitals and intervention teams on sites during victims' evacuation and transportation.…”

“…Yet, in most of the countries, communication during rescue operations is still limited to oral communication using radio devices. Regarding the French case, despite the large number of existing communication systems that are oriented for rescue actors (Appligos, n.d.-a;Mallek et al, 2016;Nomadeec, n.d.;Séguret, 2018;Sis, n.d.-a, n.d.-b;Systel, n.d.;TplSystemes, n.d.), recent statistics show that the majority of information exchange is still oral (Mallek et al, 2016). Indeed, most of the existing systems are not fully accepted by actors since they are limited to some functionalities or are developed without examining the real needs of actors.…”