how to improve EMERGENCY care: SANT’ANNA SCHOOL RESEARCHERS AND COMPANY TIME DEVELOP REC-VISIO 118 REMOTE ASSISTANCE SYSTEM FOR AMBULANCE SERVICE

Sudden and unexpected events such as heart attacks, heart failure or stroke require recognition of emergencies and immediate support. Awareness and immediate care are vital but what happens when there are no physicians in the pre-hospital setting?

Doctors responding to emergency calls on ambulances is not always a regular occurrence in Italy. REC-VISIO 118 remote assistance system can help assess and diagnosis medical emergencies at any time or in any place. It can remotely assess the nature of emergency care and coordinate basic intervention through referral to specialists.

Sant’Anna School researchers of the TeCIP Institute for Information, Communication and Perception Technology and company  TIME srl have developed a remote assistance solution for improving emergency care when the ambulance service is operated with prehospital providers (9-1-1 system volunteers) who are not physicians. REC-VISIO 118 helmet can accomplish operations close to the patient and improve survival on the way to the hospital. Ambulance service volunteers will help patients with urgent care needs getting the right advice from doctors remotely connected.

REC-VISIO 118 tested 400 times over the last 6 months in the Misericordia Pistoia and Croce Verde Pistoia ambulance service allowed users to obtain timely medical diagnosis and administer effective treatment while developing an outstanding map of the kind of intervention needed. Remote doctors assessed patients’ capacity, support volunteers with instant expertise and information about the options available or how to provide immediate treatment.

REC-VISIO 118 is a fully integrated remote communication wearable device allowing users to live the situation on-site as if they were present and on-site ambulance service volunteers to receive support. It supports 4G/5G or WIFI wireless transmission function, visor, video camera, and headphones/microphone system for remote assistance based on AR technology.

REC-VISIO 118 allows Piero Castoldi, Professor of Telecommunication at the INRETE Lab., and company TIME srl to further develop REC-VISIO, a Tuscany Region funded project for a sensor-based system for localization and ball detection in soccer games. The project results along with improvements will be proposed at the Smart Computing IEEE conference SmartComp 2020 to be held on 14 September.