In order to meet the critical needs of the stakeholders, a multi-agency collaborative group have been working together to develop a feature rich platform that will go a long way to improving clinical outcomes by enabling safe air-transport of patients to specialist facilities for time-critical care e.g. for trauma, coronary, stroke or transplantation.

About AeroMed

The award winning AeroMedical implementation offers the Emergency AeroMedical Service a real-time facility to track and locate their fleet. Its critical objectives are to;

1. Enable real-time sharing of identical mapping information between the HSE Aero-Medical Service dispatchers, the Air Corps and the Coast Guard.
2. Quickly and accurately pin-point the location of patients anywhere in Ireland in urgent need of air transfer to specialist clinical care facilities.
3. Generate the coordinates (latitude/longitude) and offer a view of a suggested helicopter landing site nearby where air and ground based services can safely rendezvous.

Benefits

• By tracking the geolocation of their helicopters, the Emergency Aeromedical Service can ensure the vehicle is on route to the correct destination.
• AeroMed enables pilots to quickly assess potential landing areas in close proximity to the desired response location by integrating electricity power lines and Google Streetview.
• GeoDirectory integration ensures every address in Ireland can be found and displayed in the spatial dimension

Feature Rich

• The system is simple, accurate, and intuitive to use so that the minimum time is required to identify rendezvous locations.
• The screen is uncluttered but highly functional and responsive.
• Training requires only a single session. Background guidance notes are included.
• System access is controlled through internet protocol (IP) lockdown or security certificates.
• Geographical features are geo-referenced using the Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM) system.
• Rendezvous locations are expressed in latitude/longitude.
• OSI MapGenie maps (road, aerial photography and hybrids) are used.
• Address/location look up exploits GeoDirectory (An Post) and the OSI Gazetteer.
• Google Street View is embedded as an adjunct so as to enable the pilot/navigator to anticipate local hazards in proximity to the landing zone.
• The map menu display options include hospitals, Garda stations, airfields and helipads that are maintained in the HSE Service Directory which multi-sources, updates and classifies health related service data on a national basis.
• Potential hazards to aircraft such as overhead power lines (ESB Networks) and buildings (GeoDirectory) can be displayed.
• Maps can be printed or transmitted to other users via a “live link”. Distances in nautical miles and kilometres can be accurately displayed.
• Special functions allow the Air Corps and Coast Guard to separately identify, document, moderate, and display pre-determined landing zones (PDLZs) that are identified from their national surveys and suitable for their particular aircraft.
• A hardcopy of the rendezvous site map and associated details can be printed and carried on missions for reference purposes.

The Multi-Agency Contributors

Health Intelligence HSE has led a multiagency collaborative initiative to create the solution that included;

• Emergency AeroMedical Services
• Irish Air Corps
• Irish Coast Guard
• Ordnance Survey Ireland
• An Post GeoDirectory
• ESB Networks

Those working on the project include Dr. Howard Johnson (Health Intelligence HSE), Ian Folan (Health Intelligence HSE), Fionnuala Donohue (Health Intelligence HSE), Douglas Beaton (Health Intelligence HSE), Colm Megan (National Ambulance Service, HSE), Mel McIntyre (OpenApp) and Nigel Hanlon (OpenApp).

 

Read the press articles:

The Journal: HSE and Air Corps’ new ambulance makes first call

Irish Medical Times: Pilot project is launched for aeromedical support

HSE: Launch of the Emergency Aeromedical Service (EAS) 

Irish Times: Pilot review confirms need for permanent air ambulance service

This article was posted by Michael O’Donnell and for further information contact info@openapp.ie 18/12/13