Medical Response to Terrorist Attacks & Other Disasters

描述(由申请人提供)： 华盛顿市中心的恐怖袭击将导致数百人(如果不是数千人)需要医疗援助。医院急诊科不是为应对如此规模的灾难而设计的。他们很快就会被涌入他们设施的病人和医务人员淹没。然而，还有更多的医务人员可以提供帮助，包括医院其他部分和门诊设施中的人员。有效动员和利用更多的医疗设施和人员有两个先决条件。第一个是制定一个应对灾难的计划。第二，存在一个医疗人员的通信网络，可以通过灾难计划激活。 我们建议建立一个通讯网络，在发生恐怖袭击或其他灾难时，急救部门可以利用它来动员医务人员。我们将使用支持无线功能的手持计算机以及几种冗余的无线协议来实现可靠和便携的通信。一旦发生恐怖袭击，该系统将发出警报并动员医务人员。一旦到达现场，医生、护士和护理人员将使用该系统执行特定的灾难计划，将临床数据上传到中央指挥中心，为治疗咨询提供双向通信，并提供现场状态更新。 在第一阶段，我们将开发和评估一个原型系统。这将决定我们方法的可行性，并为在第二阶段开发一个完整的系统提供基础。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A terrorist attack on downtown Washington, DC will result in hundreds if not thousands of people needing medical assistance. Hospital emergency departments are not designed to deal with disasters of this magnitude. They will be quickly overwhelmed by the influx of patients and medical personnel converging on their facility. Yet additional medical personnel are available to help, including those in other parts of the hospital and in ambulatory facilities. There are two prerequisites for the effective mobilization and utilization of additional medical facilities and personnel. The first is that a disaster plan be in place. The second is that there exists a communication network of healthcare personnel that can be activated by the disaster plan. We propose to create a communication network that an emergency department can use to mobilize medical personnel during a terrorist attack or other disaster. We will use wireless-enabled handheld computers along with several redundant wireless protocols for reliable and portable communication. In the event of a terrorist attack, the system will alert and mobilize medical personnel. Once on the scene, physicians, nurses, and paramedics will use the system to follow through with a specific disaster plan, upload clinical data to a central command center, provide two-way communications for treatment consultations, and provide status updates from the scene. During Phase I, we will develop and evaluate a prototype system. This will determine the feasibility of our approach and provide a basis for the development of a complete system during Phase II.