Home // International Journal On Advances in Life Sciences, volume 5, numbers 3 and 4, 2013 // View article

EMuRgency – A Basic Concept for an AI Driven Volunteer Notification System for Integrating Laypersons into Emergency Medical Services

Authors:
Jesko Elsner
Philipp Meisen
Sebastian Thelen
Daniel Schilberg
Sabina Jeschke

Keywords: Volunteer Notification System, First Responder, Emergency Medical Services, Sudden Cardiac Arrest, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, Telemedicine, eHealth, mHealth

Abstract:
In case of Sudden Cardiac Arrest, an untreated time interval of only a few minutes usually means the victims’ death. Due to a variety of parameters, e.g., the current traffic situation and the mere traveling distance, emergency medical services often arrive too late in order to procure efficient cardiopulmonary. Given this premise, it is necessary to find alternative ways for providing immediate first aid measures. One promising approach is the implementation of a Volunteer Notification System (VNS) – integrating laypersons and medically trained volunteers into the professional medical services by notifying those potential helpers who are, at the time of incident, close to the victim. By tracking the users’ location, the system is able to notify those volunteers who can arrive on scene fast enough to provide the urgently needed measures. In September 2011, the European research project “EMuRgency” started the development of such a system. Whereas a running prototype has already successfully been developed, a more sophisticated solution is required to determine the relevant volunteers. While the actual distance is an important parameter, it does not necessarily determine the time of arrival at the scene. Possible obstacles might be in the way and both physical performance and the type of movement have a direct influence on the traveling speed. Furthermore, secondary criteria apply; e.g., the current situation a volunteer is in, knowledge of the area, general engagement and his or her medical expertise. This publication will give you an overview of the “EMuRgency” project and discuss the current stage of development of the VNS; furthermore, this paper will introduce the main concept for determining the relevant volunteers within an ongoing emergency scenario and the advantages of an artificial intelligence approach to enable an efficient volunteer selection will be discussed.

Pages: 223 to 236

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2013. Used with permission.

Publication date: December 31, 2013

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2660