Feasibility of AmbulanCe-Based Telemedicine (FACT) Study:Safety, Feasibility and Reliability of Third Generation Ambulance Telemedicine

Telemedicine is currently mainly applied as an in-hospital service, but this technology also holds potential to improve emergency care in the prehospital arena. We report on the safety, feasibility and reliability of in-ambulance teleconsultation using a telemedicine system of the third generation.A routine ambulance was equipped with a system for real-time bidirectional audio-video communication, automated transmission of vital parameters, glycemia and electronic patient identification. All patients ( ≥ 18 years) transported during emergency missions by a Prehospital Intervention Team of the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel were eligible for inclusion. To guarantee mobility and to facilitate 24/7 availability, the teleconsultants used lightweight laptop computers to access a dedicated telemedicine platform, which also provided functionalities for neurological assessment, electronic reporting and prehospital notification of the in-hospital team. Key registrations included any safety issue, mobile connectivity, communication of patient information, audiovisual quality, user-friendliness and accuracy of the prehospital diagnosis.Prehospital teleconsultation was obtained in 41 out of 43 cases (95.3%). The success rates for communication of blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, glycemia, and electronic patient identification were 78.7%, 84.8%, 80.6%, 64.0%, and 84.2%. A preliminary prehospital diagnosis was formulated in 90.2%, with satisfactory agreement with final in-hospital diagnoses. Communication of a prehospital report to the in-hospital team was successful in 94.7% and prenotification of the in-hospital team via SMS in 90.2%. Failures resulted mainly from limited mobile connectivity and to a lesser extent from software, hardware or human error. The user acceptance was high.Ambulance-based telemedicine of the third generation is safe, feasible and reliable but further research and development, especially with regard to high speed broadband access, is needed before this approach can be implemented in daily practice

Prehospital Stroke Care:Limitations of Current Interventions and Focus on New Developments

Background: The global burden of stroke is immense, both in medical and economic terms. With the aging population and the ongoing industrialization of the third world, stroke prevalence is expected to increase and will have a major effect on national health expenditures. Currently, the medical treatment for acute ischemic stroke is limited to intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (IV r-tPA), but its time dependency leads to low utilization rates in routine clinical practice. Prehospital delay contributes significantly to delayed or missed treatment opportunities in acute stroke. State-of-the-art acute stroke care, starting in the pre-hospital phase, could thereby reduce the disease burden and its enormous financial costs. Summary: The first part of this review focuses on current education measures for the general public, the emergency medical services (EMS) dispatchers and paramedics. Although much has been expected of these measures to improve stroke care, no major effects on prehospital delay or missed treatment opportunities have been demonstrated over the years. Most interventional studies showed little or no effect on the onset-to-door time, IV r-tPA utilization rates or outcome, except for prenotification of the receiving hospital by the EMS. No data are currently available on the cost-effectiveness of these commonly used measures. In the second part, we discuss new developments for the improvement of prehospital stroke diagnosis and treatment which could open new perspectives in the nearby future. These include the implementation of prehospital telestroke and the deployment of mobile stroke units. These approaches may improve patient care and could serve as a platform for prehospital clinical trials. Other opportunities include the implementation of noninvasive diagnostics (like transcranial ultrasound and blood-borne biomarkers) and the reevaluation of neuroprotective strategies in the prehospital phase. Key Messages: Timely initiation of treatment can effectively reduce the medical and economic burden of stroke and should begin with optimal prehospital stroke care. For this, prehospital telemedicine is a particularly attractive approach because it is a scalable solution that has the potential to rapidly optimize acute stroke care at limited cost. (C) 2014 S. Karger AG, Base

Prehospital Unassisted Assessment of Stroke Severity Using Telemedicine A Feasibility Study

<p>Background and Purpose We evaluated the feasibility and the reliability of remote stroke severity quantification in the prehospital setting using the Unassisted TeleStroke Scale (UTSS) via a telestroke ambulance system and a fourth-generation mobile network.</p><p>Methods The technical feasibility and the reliability of the UTSS were studied in healthy volunteers mimicking 41 stroke syndromes during ambulance transportation.</p><p>Results Except for 1 issue, high-quality telestroke assessment was feasible in all scenarios. The mean examination time for the UTSS was 3.1 minutes (SD, 0.4). The UTSS showed excellent intrarater and interrater variability (=0.98 and 0.97; P</p><p>Conclusions Remote assessment of stroke severity in fast-moving ambulances using a system dedicated to prehospital telemedicine, 4G technology, and the UTSS is feasible and reliable.</p>

The PreSSUB 3.0 system.

<p>The telemedicine device is securely mounted to the ceiling of the ambulance (A) and allows bidirectional audiovisual communication between the patient and the teleconsultant via integration of a microphone, speakers, a screen and a 360° view camera (B). The teleconsultant has mobile access to the telemedicine platform using a lightweight laptop computer with touch screen, integrated microphone, speakers and a webcam (C).</p

Box-and whisker plots demonstrating bandwidth per prehospital teleconsultation.

<p>Box-and whisker plots demonstrating mean (<b>A</b>) and maximal (<b>B</b>) bandwidth per prehospital teleconsultation for download (from the ambulance to the teleconsultant) and for upload (from the teleconsultant to the ambulance). Hatched boxes represent teleconsultations outside of office hours; white boxes teleconsultations during office hours. Significant differences are indicated with * (<i>P</i><0.05) or with ** (<i>P</i><0.001).</p

Map of Brussels indicating connectivity during prehospital telemedicine consultations.

<p>Map of Brussels indicating the location of the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel (H) and the patient locations according to connectivity during prehospital telemedicine consultations (no signal loss: green ambulance; transient signal loss: yellow ambulance; permanent signal loss: red ambulance) during office hours (<b>A</b>) and outside office hours (<b>B</b>).</p

Patient and intervention characteristics.^*

<p>Patient and intervention characteristics.^{<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0110043#nt101" target="_blank">*</a>}</p

Bandwidth and data transfer during prehospital teleconsultation^*.

<p>Bandwidth and data transfer during prehospital teleconsultation^{<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0110043#nt104" target="_blank">*</a>}.</p

Detailed overview of the prehospital telemedicine diagnoses and the final in-hospital diagnose.

<p>Detailed overview of the prehospital telemedicine diagnoses and the final in-hospital diagnose.</p

Flow diagram of the FACT study.

<p>Flow diagram of the FACT study.</p