Pavlopoulos S, Berler A, Kyriacou E, Koutsouris D
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou, Greece.
Technol Health Care. 1998 Sep;6(2-3):101-10.
Recent studies conclude that early and specialised pre-hospital patient management contributes to emergency cases survival. Recent developments in telecommunication and medical informatics by means of telemedicine can be extremely useful to accomplish such tasks in a cost-effective manner. Along that direction, we have designed a portable device for emergency telemedicine. This device is able to telematically "bring" the expert doctor at the emergency site, have him perform an accurate diagnosis, and subsequently direct the Emergency Medical Technicians on how to treat the patient until he arrives to the hospital. The need for storing and archiving all data being interchanged during the telemedicine sessions is very crucial for clinical, legal and administrative purposes. For this, we have developed a multimedia database able to store and manage the data collected by the AMBULANCE system. The database was equipped with a user-friendly graphical interface to enable use from computer naive users. Furthermore, the database has the possibility to display, in an standard way, ECG's, X-ray, CT and MRI images. The application is password protected with a three-level hierarchy access for users with different privileges. The scope of this application is to enhance the capabilities of the doctor on duty for a more precise and prompt diagnosis. The application has the ability to store audio files related to each emergency case and still images of the scene. Finally, this database can become a useful multimedia tool which will work together with the AMBULANCE portable device, the HIS and the PACS of the hospital. The system has been validated in selected non-critical cases and proved to be functional and successful in enhancing the ability of the doctor's on duty for prompt and accurate diagnosis and specialised pre-hospital treatment.
近期研究表明，早期且专业的院前患者管理有助于提高急症患者的存活率。借助远程医疗的通信和医学信息学的最新发展，能够以具有成本效益的方式极为有效地完成此类任务。沿着这一方向，我们设计了一种用于紧急远程医疗的便携式设备。该设备能够通过远程方式将专家医生“带到”紧急现场，让其进行准确诊断，随后指导急救医疗技术人员在患者抵达医院之前如何对其进行治疗。出于临床、法律和行政目的，存储和存档远程医疗会话期间交换的所有数据的需求至关重要。为此，我们开发了一个多媒体数据库，能够存储和管理由救护车系统收集的数据。该数据库配备了用户友好的图形界面，以便计算机新手用户使用。此外，该数据库能够以标准方式显示心电图、X光、CT和MRI图像。该应用程序受密码保护，具有针对不同权限用户的三级层次访问权限。此应用程序的目的是增强值班医生进行更精确和快速诊断的能力。该应用程序能够存储与每个紧急病例相关的音频文件以及现场的静态图像。最后，这个数据库可以成为一个有用的多媒体工具，它将与救护车便携式设备、医院的医院信息系统（HIS）和图像存档与通信系统（PACS）协同工作。该系统已在选定的非危急病例中得到验证，并被证明在增强值班医生进行快速准确诊断和专业院前治疗的能力方面是功能齐全且成功的。
