Introduction of Telemedicine in a Prehospital Emergency Care Setting: A Pilot Study

BACKGROUND: Advances in information and communication technology have led to telemedicine applications that could support paramedics in the prehospital field. In an effort to optimise the available resources like prehospital emergency physicians (PHP), the State Health Services of a Swiss state decided to launch a pilot study on the feasibility of using telemedicine in the prehospital emergency setting. OBJECTIVE: The primary objective was to measure the number of missions completed without technical problems with remote PHP support through telemedicine (tele-PHP). The secondary objectives were to evaluate the safety of this protocol and to describe the actions and decisions that clinicians can make by using tele-PHP. METHODS: This was a prospective observational pilot study on all missions involving the dispatch of ground PHP or tele-PHP. The severity score, dispatch criteria, actions, and decisions made by ground PHP and tele-PHP were collected. RESULTS: PHP were dispatched simultaneously with an ambulance on 478 occasions, including 68 (14%) situations that started directly with tele-PHP. Among those situations, three had to be transformed into on-site PHP missions after the on-site evaluation by paramedics. Fifteen missions were cancelled by paramedics once they were on site, and six missions encountered a connection issue. Forty-four PHP missions that were dispatched simultaneously with paramedics were completed by tele-PHP only without any connection problems. Paramedics and PHP estimated that actions or decisions were provided by PHP in 66% of the on-site PHP missions and 34% of the tele-PHP missions. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first experience of tele-PHP regarding PHP dispatch in Switzerland. Despite the small number of missions carried out, tele-PHP could be used for well-selected situations to reduce the need for a PHP on site.