28 January 2019

Politis

Connectivity and IoT specialist Pangea has joined forces with Kingston University to provide ambulances with 5G technology to help A&E doctors offer life-saving advice to paramedic teams.

The technology, which is still at development stage, will provide a live video link to be transmitted to staff at the hospital, so they can advise on the best course of action, whether that is to transport the patient to hospital or offer care at a different location.

Put simply, the technology innovation involves compressing the video to provide detailed insights into the patient's conditions and is delivered over a high-speed connection so doctors can respond in real time.

"The idea is to give doctors and surgeons a virtual environment to see what they are dealing with in real time. It could help with triaging care or even allow medics to advise ambulance crews on treatment, improving chances of survival in life or death cases," said Kingston University's professor of wireless communications Christos Politis. "It would mean medical teams know exactly what they are dealing with when the patient arrives at hospital, which would be a real game changer." 

Meanwhile, Pangea and Kingston University are also developing technology to the other two branches of the emergency services – the police and fire service.