Challenge Patient Dispatching in Mass Casualty Incidents

Efficient management of mass casualty incidents is complex, since regular emergency medical services struc-tures have to be switched to a temporary “disaster mode” involving additional operational and tactical struc-tures. Most of the relevant decisions have to be taken on-site in a provisional and chaotic environment. Data gathering about affected persons is one side of the coin; the other side is on-site patient dispatching requiring information exchange with the regular emergency call center and destination hospitals. In this paper we extend a previous conference contribution about the research project e-Triage to the aspect of patient data and on-site patient dispatching. Our considerations reflect the situation in Germany, which deserves from our point of view substantial harmonization

IT-Supported Management of Mass Casualty Incidents: The e-Triage Project

Emergencies arise out of disasters and are characterized by limited resources in terms of medical personnel and infrastructure, underlining the importance of mobilizing regional, supra-regional and/or international help to the affected regions. Effective deployment of this help is crucial, but only possible if a common operational picture among authorities, coordination centers, and staff working in the field is developed as quickly as possible. Since mass casualty incidents (MCIs) normally overwhelm the regularly available rescue resources (rescue personnel, transport vehicles, hospital capacity, etc.), a particularly effective crisis management has to be applied. In general, for co-ordination centers it is a challenge to get an immediate and accurate situation overview (i.e. number of victims, injury categories and their location). Indeed, triage and registration performed at different places by different teams maintaining different lists are indubitably an error-prone approach. Furthermore, it can happen that all later attempts to track the way of single patient, their attendants and transport vehicles are not very successful, although this could be of key interest in scenarios with nuclear, biological or chemical hazards. Within the e-Triage project, which is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, an integrated concept for electronic registration of affected persons is under development

DLR Schlussbericht e-Triage: Verbundprojekt Elektronische Betroffenenerfassung in Katastrophenfällen "e-Triage"; Teilvorhaben Synchronisation von verteilten Datenbanken über Satelliten- und terrestrische Netze

1. Derzeitiger Stand von Wissenschaft und Technik: Es existieren bereits eine Reihe frei verfügbarer und kommerziell vertriebener Replikationslösungen für Distributed Database Management Systems (DDBMS). Keines der bekannten Produkte erfüllte gänzlich die Anforderungen des e-Triage Projekts. 2. Begründung/Zielsetzung der Untersuchung: Die große Herausforderung im Einsatzgeschehen ist, verteilt vorliegende Daten zu aggregieren und allen beteiligten Entscheidungsträgern zeitgleich vorzulegen (Sanduhr-Modell). Die einzelnen Datenbanken müssen sich über die vorhandenen (möglicherweise unzuverlässigen) Übertragungskanäle automatisch synchronisieren. Außerdem müssen sich die Datenbanken gegenseitig finden. 3. Methode: Zunächst wurde ein passendes Open-Source-Projekt als Grundlage ausgewählt. In einem zweiten Schritt wurde der asynchrone Datenbankreplikator mit einer hocheffizienten Synchronisierungslösung verbunden. 4. Ergebnis: Die Arbeiten führten zu einem neuartigen Replikatorlösung, die problemlos mit Linkunterbrechungen umgehen kann. Die Ergebnisse wurden mit zwei Patenten geschützt. 5. Schlussfolgerung/Anwendungsmöglichkeiten: Neben dem MANV-Management sind alle Anwendungsbereiche denkbar, bei denen eine Instanz eines verteilten Datenbanksystems auf einem mobilen Terminal laufen soll. Möglich sind alle Bereiche der mobilen Datenerfassung, Logistik, Warenwirtschaft usw

IT-Supported Management of Mass Casualty Incidents: The e-Triage Project

Voice, analogue mobile radio, and paper have been successfully used for decades for coordination of emergencies and disasters, but although being simple and robust this approach cannot keep pace with today’s requirements any more. Emerging and established digital communication standards open the door to new applications and services, but the expected benefit needs to be carefully evaluated against robustness, interoperability, and user-friendliness. This paper describes a framework for IT-supported management of mass casualty incidents, which is currently under implementation and study. The four pillars of the concept are handheld devices for use both in daily rescue operations and in disasters, autonomous satellite-based communication infrastructure, a distributed database concept for maximal availability, and psychological acceptance research

Observing the Formation of Long-range Order during Bose-Einstein Condensation

We have experimentally investigated the formation of off-diagonal long-range order in a gas of ultracold atoms. A magnetically trapped atomic cloud prepared in a highly nonequilibrium state thermalizes and thereby crosses the Bose-Einstein condensation phase transition. The evolution of phase coherence between different regions of the sample is constantly monitored and information on the spatial first-order correlation function is obtained. We observe the growth of the spatial coherence and the formation of long-range order in real time and compare it to the growth of the atomic density. Moreover, we study the evolution of the momentum distribution during the nonequilibrium formation of the condensate.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Projekt e-Triage: Datenmanagement für die elektronische Betroffenenerfassung und Akzeptanz bei Rettungskräften

Die Anforderungen an Anwendungen für IT-gestütztes Management eines Massenanfall von Verletzten (MANV) sind vielfältig. Neben Aspekten der Ergonomie (Hardware, Benutzeroberflächen) müssen organisatorische Fragen ber¨ucksichtigt werden. Die Nutzer sind im MANV besonders stressreichen Situationen ausgesetzt, und die Einstellung zur Technik und der Umgang mit neuen Technologien können eine entscheidende Rolle spielen. Bei einem MANV muss zudem davon ausgegangen werden, dass Kommunikationsinfrastruktur gar nicht oder nur eingeschränkt verfügbar ist. Daraus ergeben sich Ansprüche an die Datenhaltung, die für den Einsatz in einer möglicherweise provisorischen Umgebung entsprechend robust ausgelegt sein muss

Removing Barriers, Integrating Research, Spreading Excellence: The European Satellite Communications Network of Excellence "SatNEx"

Within the recently launched 6th Research Framework Programme of the European Commission, 21 major players in satellite communications research have joined forces to implement the European Satellite Communications Network of Excellence (SatNEx). The primary goal of SatNEx is to achieve long-lasting integration of the European research in satellite communication and to develop a common base of knowledge, thus contributing to the realization of the European Research Area. This paper discusses the background and motivation for implementation of the network and highlights the SatNEx mission and key objectives. A top-level overview is then provided including a description of the consortium, the Joint Programme of Activities (JPA) and the time schedule with deliverables and milestones. Finally, an update of ongoing work is presented