EmergencyTech.org

I know this is a bit dated, but I’m cleaning out the old “Stuff to Blog” folder.

Two rocket scientists EMS workers over at the London Ambulance Service have, rightly, become laughing stocks after their recent attempt at circumnavigating the British Isles because their on-board GPS moving map display told them to:

The crew had been tasked with taking the male patient 12 miles across Essex from King George Hospital in Ilford to Mascalls Park Hospital near Brentwood - a 12 mile journey which should have taken about 30 minutes.

But a fault in the ambulance’s on-board satellite navigation system sent the London Ambulance Service crew on an eight-hour round trip to Manchester.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said the crew set off in the early hours of Tuesday morning. They didn’t reach Mascalls Park Hospital until the early afternoon.

He said the crew hadn’t been to Mascalls Park before and only realised they were heading in the wrong direction when they reached the outskirts of Manchester.

Sure, the crew blames it on a problem with the technology, but we all know what really happened. Didn’t these fine fellows ever learn the old saw, “treat the patient, not the monitor?” And, if so, don’t they think that the same might hold true for other pieces of equipment?

(Reminds me of the old “Mondi Map Display” I used to have when I worked in Cheektowaga. -ed.)

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As if 911 dispatchers and call-takers weren’t already overwhelmed by increasing call volumes, staffing and training issues, and a general “fog of war” approach to system status management Florida’s PowerPhone has announced software that promises to ad a new type of data to handle, images.

The system capitalizes on the 370.5 million cameraphones in use today–50% of those in use everall–a number that promises to increase to nearly 87% of all cellular phones in use by 2010. PowerPhone’s Computer Aided Call Handling software package can enable callers to send pictures from their camera-enabled handsets to dispatchers who then log them and forward information to responders.

PowerPhone’s CPD system works like this: a citizen calls from his cell phone to report an emergency or suspicious activity—let’s say he’s spotted a missing child who the police issued an Amber Alert for. The caller dials 9-1-1 to report the sighting and says he can send a picture of the child for verification. The call handler sends an e-mail message to the caller’s cell phone from PowerPhone’s Total Response® Computer Aided Call Handlingâ„¢ software. The caller then replies to this message with the photo attached. Total Response stores the photo in the incident record for easy reference.

By following this process, the 9-1-1 center ensures that photos are linked with the appropriate records of the citizen’s 9-1-1 call. Even more important, this process discourages citizens from randomly sending photos into the 9-1-1 center-an arrangement that can lead to pranks and other abuses of the system.

As with any new implementation there are several potential benefits and stumbling points to note:

• The ability to forward immediate images of suspects, vehicles, license plates, even call locations to responders could prove invaluable. It could mean the difference between finding a location and not in some situations.
• The increase in data that will have to be handled by the dispatchers and dispatching systems could prove immense. As camera resolution increases so does the file size of images and video clips. Additionally, the more the community becomes aware of this technology, the more data must be sifted through and tagged which requires a robust and secure cataloguing and file-management system.
• Errors and delays in data transmission could slow or complicate responses if users become dependant.
• This could be integrated with a comprehensive data reporting and management system for responders that would allow smooth transmission of image data from eyewitness to trauma room.
• If this could work both ways dispatchers could forward detailed image or video-based prearrival instructions to callers who are called on to perform CPR or other lifesaving interventions.
• Early adoption of these types of technologies would help pave the way for emerging ones by providing infrastructure and hands-on proof-of-concept.
• If developed the images could be tagged with geographical information such as GPS coordinates or tie in with other location-based 911 systems like those from Verizon.

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This is an interesting use of existing infrastructure in a new way that promotes public safety. Cell phone towers often become useless for telecommunications as soon as disaster strikes but, in the wake of tsunami deaths that could have been prevented with better early-warning for residents, the Indonesian government has found a new use for these hulking eyesores.

“Indonesia will place sirens on mobile phone towers in a bid to warn coastal residents of a tsunami, a minister said yesterday, more than a week after huge waves killed hundreds of people on the south coast of Java.Officials in Indonesia have come under fire for the lack of any warning ahead of the July 17 tsunami, despite regional efforts to set up an early alert system after the massive 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami”.Further,”we will accelerate information to the people to below 20 minutes when there is a potential tsunami by using sirens in the coastal areas,” Research and Technology Minister Kusmayanto Kadiman told reporters after a cabinet meeting.”We will equip mobile phone towers in the coastal areas with sirens. They will work when the meteorological office hits the button to warn of a possible tsunami,” Kadiman said”.

You can read the entire article from the Sydney Morning Herald for more details.

Via SmartMobs

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We all have a few electronic devices around that we’re not using anymore. No, I’m not talking about those LifePak 5’s collecting dust in the back of the equipment room; I mean cell phones, PDAs, ink and toner cartridges, iPods, and just about anything else.

Instead of trashing these relics and leaving them to (not) rot in a landfill somewhere you can donate them to Recycling for Charities and even select the charity you would like to benefit from your donation or apply to have your charity benefit from donations. So instead of shifting that old brick of a cell phone around in the junk drawer why not donate it? It’s free and only takes a minute. Or, even better, organize your own recycling drive at your agency. It’s good PR, for sure, and they’ll even help you out. I know I’m bringing this up when I talk to the boss next.

Via Lifehacker

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Ever found yourself in, say, a huge mass casualty incident that required tons of communications after a disaster that knocks out the telecommunications infrastructure? Yeah, I know, me too. Thankfully, San Diego’s All Road Communications have developed a system that they claim can deliver working satellite phones to anywhere at anytime.

We have been working hard on establishing multiple air and land delivery services which operate around the clock for both pick up and delivery. The effect of this is that our customers can now order a phone on Sunday night and get it Monday morning, or order Monday morning and get it Monday night, anywhere in the USA.”

All Road Communications is open for sales, rentals and customer service 24 hours a day, and can now also ship 24 hours a day.

At a paltry $19.95 a week for the more cost effective phones from the Iridium and Globalstar networks and the capacity for internet connectivity over the Inmarsat system it sounds like a home run considering the first thing to go in a disaster is telecommunications. The trick would be to incorporate this into a larger response plan for smaller systems that may not have the resources or the persistent threat to justify stockpiling satelite phones and replacing them as the technology changes.

Sounds like a good idea for staying on the cutting edge if they can deliver to areas that are have restricted access.

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