NEWEST TECHNOLOGIES IN RESCUE: SCENARIOS AND PERSPECTIVES
Newest technologies in rescue: scenarios and perspectives
Over the last twenty years, the world has been hit by a wave of the newest technologies for pre-hospital care. Rescue technologies keep evolving putting all the rescuers in front of different possibilities but also challenges.
Healthcare equipment, electromedical and patient transport devices as well as vehicle fittings. Technology takes over every aspect of the daily work of rescuers.
The reasons are manifold. Firstly, the Covid-19 pandemic has created new needs. Secondly, there is still the need to optimize the available resources and maximize the efficiency of medical services.
This article aims at investigating the impact of these innovations on emergency services by analyzing some of the devices currently available in the Italian market. For example, the biocontainment systems for ambulance transport, the sanitization and disinfection systems for vehicles, powered stretchers, and external compression systems.
Newest technologies in rescue: new emergency care technologies
Like any circumstance, technical developments are based on a promise for performance improvements and simplified procedures.
In the Italian emergency world, the co-presence of employees and volunteers makes it different than other European countries. The adoption of new equipment and devices may create difficulties in daily practice and lead to the adoption but basic patient care procedures.
The most successful companies in this field are offering improved quality standards and user-friendly products. Simple products to integrate into the medical operators’ uses. This a challenge that many organizations have had to face during the pandemic and that has highlighted the importance of ambulance disinfection and biocontainment of contagious patients.
Disinfection technologies
Before Covid-19, sanitization operations were periodically carried out using generic products, usually the same used for daily cleaning of environments.
The provisions issued to contain the contagion and the operators’ commitment to personal protection have led many companies to look for specific solutions. Ozone generators, hydrogen peroxide-based or ultraviolet radiation devices, and specific materials to reduce the bacterial and viral load have become tools of daily use on emergency vehicles around us. An example of how technology wins over a challenge.
To read more about Ozone sanitization, read THIS article on The EMS Blog!
Biocontainment technologies
The situation is different for biocontainment systems, which appeared on the market a few months after the outbreak of the medical emergency.
The first models were structures in a non-rigid plastic material that was difficult to clean and had obsolete contagion-containment systems. Non-specific filtration and mechanical isolation solutions like Velcro or zips are unable to ensure protection for the operators.
The proliferation of such products has led to their non-adoption or abandonment in favor of a reinforced use of personal protective equipment (double nitrile gloves, face shields, FFP2 masks, and disposable Total Body suits).
This equipment made it possible to overcome the early stages of the pandemic while maintaining the rescue practices substantially unchanged.
The protraction of the medical emergency has allowed some companies to create more effective products but above all designed in compliance with the practices of rescue technicians.
Now, those who want to equip with biocontainment modules can rely on equipment with a rigid structure, in a resistant and easy-to-disinfect plastic material. These products come with HEPA absolute filtration units and a ventilation system able to create negative pressure inside the pod. They are also designed for both patient transport in a semi-sitting position and quick access to the chest in case of resuscitation procedures. Will the new systems meet the need of the users? Will they replace the first solutions that have put at risk the efficiency of rescue?
Technologies in patient care, handling, and transport: a closer look to rescue technologies
To this point, we have analyzed those technologies that do not interfere with basic emergency procedures, such as BLS (Basic Life Support), CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation), or patient transport and handling.
On the other side, what happens now in a market of devices designed to facilitate work to the point of replacing the emergency technician? When it comes to powered stretchers or compression systems, operators have to deal with a new way of working.
Although these systems are still new on the domestic market, employees like them because of a reduction in the load to carry.
The possibility to move the patient with minimum effort appeals to the emergency technician but implies a specific education and change of mind in the interaction dynamics with the staff members. Indeed, coordination during loading and unloading remains a key element, even with a manual auto-loading stretcher.
The case of external compression systems brings an improvement in the performance, guaranteed by a device not subject to physical fatigue or changes in rhythm and frequency of manual execution of ECM (External Cardiac Massage). This makes it necessary to reformulate the BLS procedures that are based on the ECM.
Let’s assume that along with the external compression system there is also an AED. (Automated External Defibrillator): the role of the emergency technician would be limited to maintaining safety and applying external plates for the delivery of the electric shock. Habits and practices built over time are destined to change in unprecedented ways.
Heterogeneous engineering
Highlighting those aspects connected to new emergency technologies is useful to understand future developments in the world of territory emergency care.
The first aspect to consider s the non-use of new devices or reluctance to adopt them.
Designers’ will to provide more performant and intuitive devices is as strong as users’ will to adopt these innovations.
The picture presented involved heterogeneous engineering. This theoretical construct refers to a scenario where objects and physical persons interact to complete an operation. The interaction of heterogeneous elements results in a set of practices becoming consolidated over time and allows to welcome of external elements, such as technological innovation.
Today in the emergency world there are more fortuitous encounters with new emergency technologies than happy marriages. The success of any technological innovation depends on its relation with the user.
Discover our biocontainment systems here, on our products page!