Real-time telemedicine for emergency medical evacuation by air transportation

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Emergency Medical Services (EMS) on board of aircrafts, also known as air ambulance, are used for emergency medical evacuation, such as transporting trauma patients from the accident site to a hospital, or from the battlefield to a treatment center. EMS are also being considered for deployment on board of commercial flights as an attempt to avoid their costly deviation in the case of a medical emergency on board. EMS vehicles still rely on voice communications to exchange medical information between the dispatch center and the crew on board. This is extremely limiting; the medical team in the hospital has no other choice than relying on a proxy to transmit clinical information by voice and cannot have: 1- direct visual assessment of the patient;2- direct access to the patient's vital signs; 3- prompt feedback of the patient's critical evolving situation. All these obstacles limit the ability of the medical specialists on the ground to take in charge the patient who may need life saving immediate intervention. They also limit the destination facility to better prepare for receiving the patient as well as the paramedical crew on-board in their capacity to act. Our objective is to provide the medical team on the ground direct access to the patient's vital signs, along with visual assessment and geo-positioning. This requires information transfer using telecommunication channels available on board of the aircraft. Therefore, we will: 1- investigate the video and vital signs requirements; 2- study and propose compression schemes that preserve the clinical value of the patient's video; 3- design innovative methods to use the available communication channels normally used for exchanging navigation information in order to transmit clinical data; 4- and integrate the clinical information with the patient's history in the Electronic Medical Record at the hospital. This project will lead to new knowledge about image acquisition and compression schemes that aim to preserve the clinical value of the information while transferring it over vacant aircraft communication channels. It will lead to improving patient care and to providing new commercial opportunities to our industrial partners.