TECHNOLOGY

TECHNOLOGICAL

TOOLS THE LATEST INNOVATIONS FOR THE WORLD’S EMERGENCY SERVICES.

SMART AMBULANCE

Thailand has introduced a new 5G-connected smart ambulance. In partnership with Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital in Bangkok, communications company Thai True Corporation has developed new features for its fl eet to help improve diagnostic and treatment procedures, as well as the communication between paramedics and doctors at the hospital. The vehicle, known as the “new ER model” can provide high-resolution large data such as CT scans, x-rays and ultrasound images that can be sent over a “smart intelligence network”, as well as live streamed footage from internal CCTV cameras.

As part of the new model, paramedics can wear AR glasses that also send images to the hospital in real time so that doctors can monitor patients’ symptoms. The ambulance also has an enhanced smart ventilation system that pushes air out of the vehicle and reduces the risk of infection, which is particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic.

GREEN LIGHT

Tra c lights and intersections in the German city of Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart have been equipped with technology to enable fi re engines and rescue service teams to get to emergencies faster. In an initiative led by tra c technology group SWARCO, each light and junction has been fi tted with Cohda Wireless MK5 Roadside Units that correspond with the equivalent units on board rescue vehicles to grant them green-light passage en route to emergencies. The system works by sending messages relaying position and speed, several times per second, from emergency vehicles to a tra c light controller, where these signals are processed and compared with scenarios stored in the programming. If the system detects an approaching emergency vehicle, the tra c light controller automatically prioritises that vehicle until it has gone through the lights or intersection. Cohda Wireless’s technology has been applied in other similar ways to make roads safer. In Estonia and Finland, its V2X hardware and software features in a smart pedestrian crosswalk solution that alerts pedestrians and other road-users to danger, while vehicle positioning technology was successfully trialled in the Bjørnegård tunnel in the municipality of Bærum in Norway in an e ort to improve vehicle safety in this tunnel and others like it around the world.

EMS APP

Montana-based medical tech company Pulsara has developed an app that provides a shared platform for EMS, ambulance and emergency management, allowing paramedics to alert an emergency department of a patient’s status, underlying conditions and initial fi rst-responder treatments, as well as their estimated arrival time at the hospital. The app calculates the ETA based on GPS but also allows users to share important details such as ECGs or images from the scene. It also stores all information shared across the platform so that emergency personnel can review each step of the patient’s treatment to identify areas that need improvement.

WILDFIRE SATELLITE SIGNALS

Munich-based start-up company OroraTech has developed an early wildfi re detection and monitoring service designed to notify fi re departments of fi re hotspots early enough to help them execute e ective fi re management strategies.

The company that originated at the Technical University of Munich is developing a constellation of about 100 nanosatellites, or CubeSats, that will greatly improve global coverage from above, overpassing an area every 30 minutes and sending data back to Earth faster than satellites already in orbit.

Each nanosatellite will be around the size of a shoe box but will contain all of the processing technology needed to observe potential wildfi re activity through high-resolution thermal imagery capture, and send the information back to the relevant authorities and fi re departments.

The constellation will be built over the next few years with the fi rst launch expected in late-2021, with the aim being that fi refi ghters can use the wildfi re detection and monitoring service to see fi res on a global scale or customised area of interest, including di erent options of map layers such as topography, vegetation, fi re danger index and weather to help make it easier to identify and analyse fi re events.