FirstNet: Connecting EMS To Improve On-Scene Triage, Care and Safety

FirstNet has developed this video presentation to help the EMS community prepare for the rollout of the nationwide public safety broadband network. FirstNet represents a revolution in the way EMS and other public safety entities will communicate with one another and how improved organizational interoperability will lead to more efficient and more appropriate patient care and health system navigation.  

The video takes the viewer through a vehicle collision scenario during which a capability-enhanced EMS provider may acquire and transmit critically timed information to other medical team members via digital cloud databases that are enabled by the FirstNet network.  

The key aspects of FirstNet in the future which solve current care deficiencies include:

• Connected situational awareness (real-time access to status of resources and relevant events);
• Common operational pictures (all team members have access to patient/scene data and same expectations for intervention/care/transport process);
• Parallel processing of data in challenging and chaotic environments (all relevant data available to all team members at all times at their demand);
• The ability to adopt and share diagnostic and treatment applications in a secure platform.

As shown, FirstNet will dramatically improve incident triage and enable parallel processing by assisting on-scene responders to acquire and transmit critical information to doctors providing medical direction and other providers in incoming air and ground units in real time. Utilizing the bandwidth available over the FirstNet network, two-way video will connect all responders and providers for a car crash, enable drone preview of a crash scene, and make multiple vital signs monitoring databases accessible from any secured app-based mobile device.  

Additionally, patient safety and safety for the first responders themselves is also factored into the future technical applications.  This includes an ambulance-based self-guided UAV drone equipped with live streaming visual and thermal spectrum cameras able to assess a crash scene for wandering patients and potential hazardous situations such as fuel/vapor/chemical leaks, unstable terrain or downed electrical wires which may demand alternative approaches to the scene and summoning of additional resources.

The FirstNet network has the potential for a dramatic increase in expedient emergency triage. At the same time, it will help reduce cost and streamline post-action reports, which will produce positive results for both EMS practitioners and their patients. 

FirstNet will change the practice of EMS. Learn more at FirstNet.gov.