Pre-hospital Triage Improvement for Ambulances via 5G Video and Vital Data Communication

The use of real-time video-audio and vital patient data significantly improves the effectiveness of remote assessment in emergencies, compared with the current audio-only pre-hospital communications. This was found during recently completed 5G trials, involving ambulance professionals. The aim of the trials was to investigate how 5G-enabled video-audio and vital patient data monitoring can benefit remote patient assessment and what are the potential implementation constraints. An indoor 5G standalone network was used for the trials, with measured round-trip time as low as 7 ms. With the trials, it was verified that the decision making was quicker and more accurate when the remotely based Chief Medical Officer of an ambulance service received real-time video-audio complimented with vital patient data (for example electrocardiogram) from the paramedic. This meant that the pre-hospital triage significantly improved accelerating patient treatment and avoiding unnecessary conveyance to the hospital. Recommendations are also given addressing the observed implementation constraints.