A team from the National Security Technology Department’s Systems Concepts and Analysis Group has developed and recently demonstrated new technologies that would automate patient monitoring and tracking during emergency situations, such as a mass casualty disaster, enhancing medical personnel’s ability to care for a larger number of patients.

Through a $3 million grant from the U.S. National Library of Medicine the team developed the Advanced Health and Disaster Aid Network (AID-N) – a network of electronic devices used to monitor and track patients, and display vital information to users in facilities, such as hospitals, or incoming ambulances.

“For years responders have performed these critical tasks with paper triage tags, clipboards of notes, phones and handheld radios,” says T. Gao, AID-N project manager. “This workflow has proven labor intensive, time consuming, and prone to human error. AID-N is the only technology of its kind that automates the entire tracking process for providers, vehicles and patients.”

Algorithms developed by the team enable the devices to continually monitor a patient’s vital statistics and alert a responder when immediate attention is required. Using a digital assistant-like device, with its embedded camera and Blue-tooth scanner, responders can quickly record a patient’s identification information (often by simply scanning the barcode on a driver’s license), and look at triage details, treatments, photographs and real-time sensor readings. “This greatly improves the process of reassessing patients,” Gao says. Using sensors that communicate on a wireless industry standard known as Zigbee, the electronic tags transmit data to GPS-equipped laptops installed inside ambulances, at care facilities, and at designated areas of a disaster site.

Area EMS personnel test the Advanced Health and Disaster Aid Network during a mock disaster exercise.

Technology Demonstration

The project recently culminated in a mock disaster exercise held at Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md., in collaboration with the Montgomery County Emergency Medical Services group and Bethesda-based Suburban Hospital. The scenario – a large school bus accident at a school – was developed by NSTD’s M. Sikes, who develops outbreak scenarios for APL’s ESSENCE epidemic-tracking program – in coordination with the Montgomery County Department of Homeland Security.

Two teams of responders – one using the current paper-based triage method, the other using the electronic devices – tracked the patients. One incident commander manually tallied the number of patients from each team, alerting the hospital to the number being transferred. The hospital and ambulances, both outfitted with the team’s monitoring equipment, could track patients’ locations and medical status using a Web site.

“During the drill the incident commander miscounted the number of patients being sent to the hospital, but the hospital – monitoring actual data on the Web site – realized fewer
patients were incoming,” Gao says. “This helped them provide adequate care without over-allocating hospital resources.”

A Joint Effort

APL led a national team of researchers, including Harvard University, which developed the software mesh networking capabilities that run the triage tags; the University of Maryland, which developed software for the devices; and the University of Virginia, which designed the tag hardware. Suburban Hospital, JHU Medical Center and a collection of Emergency Medical Services groups from Baltimore, Montgomery and Arlington counties helped define user requirements and review prototypes, in addition to providing personnel and ambulances for the drill.

APL’s team is now preparing a report to be published by the National Library of Medicine, and seeking funds to support further technology development efforts, such as modifying the sensors to detect hazardous chemical or biological agents.

For more information about the AID-N project, visit www.aid-n.org.

Copyright (c) 2006 JHU/APL