INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR HEALTH ASSISTANCE TECHNICIANS IN EMS: IMPROVING EFFICIENCY AND PATIENT OUTCOMES

Abstract

This paper discusses innovative technologies to improve the efficiency of health assistance technicians working in an emergency medical services context. The proposed technologies are electronic wearable devices that enable two different types of wearable health interfaces: ECG acquisition and blood glucose level monitoring. The evaluation of the performance of the proposed technologies by health assistance technicians during the diagnosis phase was accomplished. The results demonstrate that the implemented platforms were able to diagnose the majority of the cases tested, with a level of security and accuracy acceptable when using these devices. In addition, the use of the proposed wearable health interface that displays real-time vital signs allowed distant assistance from a medical doctor or a nurse, as well as an improvement in the communication of vital signs. It can also alert the technician if a vital sign falls outside a determined threshold, creating an alarm to alert the physician or nurse. Our research work is contributing to the improvement of patient diagnosis in the EMS context and to providing a decision support telemedicine system for medical doctors, paramedics, or health assistance technicians.