8th Nov 2019
Critically injured patients in London can now be seen instantly by London’s Air Ambulance paramedics in the ambulance service control room through a revolutionary app which establishes a video link with the 999 caller live at the scene.
GoodSAM have donated this technology to London’s Air Ambulance Charity for twelve months, and we are proud to be working with this cutting-edge technology. The app’s ‘instant on scene’ feature allows our trauma paramedics to see serious incidents such as stabbings and road traffic collisions in seconds rather than minutes.
It works by sending a request to the 999 caller’s mobile phone asking permission to access the camera. The phone then sends a stream from their camera to the control room, and even allows medics to measure a pulse from the video stream and assess the patient.
Receiving accurate information quickly and efficiently from a 999 caller is vital in the first moments after a serious incident. Data shows that a patient suffering from a cardiac arrest has a 50% chance of survival if treated in hospital, compared with only a 9% chance of survival on the streets of London.
The London Ambulance Service control room takes over 5,000 calls each day, and London’s Air Ambulance Charity goes out to an average of five missions per day. GoodSAM is already working to help our trauma paramedics help patients within seconds and prioritise resources.
Using the platform medics are better able spot any symptoms that may not be visible to someone without medical training and helps provide quicker treatment to the patient as the medical professionals are effectively ‘on scene’ – virtually - before they physically arrive.
Jason Morris, flight paramedic with London’s Air Ambulance Charity said:
“In ten years of working in the control room this is one of the biggest innovations that I have seen, helping to enhance the skills that we already have.
“Being able use GoodSAM Instant-on-Scene to see the patient at the scene of the emergency is revolutionising how we respond to life-threatening incidents. This cutting-edge technology is already improving patient outcomes helping us to get to patients quicker and if needed give life-saving clinical advice.”
The platform is accessible to everyone with a smartphone and doesn’t need a downloaded app to enable the video stream – which means anyone can use this resource. It is not like Skype or FaceTime and works on any smartphone in seconds.
Professor Mark Wilson, neurosurgeon and GoodSAM co-founder, said:
“Our mission is to save lives through technology, and we believe the ability to instantly see the mechanism of injury and how sick a patient looks can make a considerable difference to patient care.
“By advising the caller (and seeing for example how good someone’s cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) technique is), we believe we can also provide care before we get there through the people already on scene. This with the ability to instantly locate people could herald a significant leap forward in pre-hospital care.”