UMass Amherst Engineer Helps Streamline Triage at Disaster Sites Using RFID Technology
Nov. 23, 2009
| Contact: | Janet Lathrop 413/545-0444 |
AMHERST, Mass. – When emergency responders take disaster victims to the hospital, they use the most advanced technology to monitor vital signs. But before they can get victims to an ambulance, EMTs still use flimsy paper triage tags to identify the number and severity of injuries at the disaster scene. In an effort to modernize that tagging process, Aura Ganz, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is aiming to replace the paper tags with high-tech devices that use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology.
With Ganz’s new triage chips and readers which she has dubbed DIORAMA, emergency responders arriving on the scene slip a pre-programmed electronic tag around each victim’s wrist. Chip readers are quickly placed around the perimeter of the scene, so when an emergency commander logs in, either remotely or at the scene, he can immediately see a color-coded map of the victims’ locations and severity of their injuries. He then directs the on-site responders to the most critical cases—the red dots he sees on the screen—then to the less critical injuries in yellow.
With the old paper tags, which can be difficult to see, it’s more difficult for responders to get a sense of the overall number of victims or their locations. “It takes time, and they really don’t know their target,” Ganz says. Instead of rushing around searching for paper tags, EMTs can be directed to precisely where they’re needed by the commander using the electronic map. RFID technology should lead to more efficient deployment of emergency services and getting help to victims faster in a disaster.
Without a sense of overall casualties, Ganz says, “It’s very cumbersome for medical personnel to arrive at a scene of chaos with confusing debris and victims spread all over the place and carry out a fast and effective triage operation to save as many people as possible.” She wants to “streamline the triage process and significantly reduce the time it takes to rescue victims.”
Also, with the new system, EMTs can pinpoint transport for each victim to the nearest hospital equipped to deal with the individual’s specific injuries.
As the name implies, radio frequency identification chips emit a “this is me” message that allows a radio receiver to identify them. The same technology is used to label library books and track apparel in retail stores. Ganz developed the technology that allows those readers to identify a chip’s location on an electronic map.
Ganz has named her system DIORAMA after the display of victims’ locations that RFID mapping provides. She has spent the last year developing prototype tags. So far, they have performed well in preliminary tests at UMass Amherst, Ganz says. The tests have involved placing the RFID bands around the Engineering Quad to ensure they can be located and viewed on a graphical display.
A $400,000 exploratory grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded the prototype development stage of the project, but Ganz is in the process of applying for second phase funding from NIH, which would allow her to take her prototype technology to the field to be tested in real emergencies. Before that can happen she must figure out how to weatherproof the tags.
To create this promising new life-saving tool, Ganz is collaborating with medical emergency managers in Massachusetts, including members of the state’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health who are involved in disaster planning.
“Our next step in developing the DIORAMA will also include dynamic traffic data,” Ganz says. For this, she is working with the UMass Amherst Transportation Center to include up-to-the-minute traffic patterns in determining the best routes for ambulances to take victims to the hospital.
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