ITS and Transportation Safety: EMS System Data Integration to Improve Traffic Crash Emergency Response and Treatment - Phase III Report

Abstract

The transportation safety and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) literature has called for the development of better information system tools to support EMS to aid in reducing the human impact of medical emergencies. Building upon previous research by the researchers, this project seeks to advance a prototype of a mobile and web-based information service, known as CrashHelp, designed for use by various emergency medical practitioners involved in the end-to-end continuum of emergency patient care. The broad objective in this report was to examine the potential to provide – through a geographic information system (GIS)-based visual and interactive platform -- an easy to use analytical tool that can provide a holistic view of crash information (such as distance, age, severity of crash) that can better serve practitioners and agencies in planning for and responding to traffic crashes. The specific research objectives were to: (1) collect and examine information regarding the potential for using the CrashHelp system in the state of Idaho as a case-study; (2) identify and develop aggregate performance metrics for end-to-end EMS responses to automobile crashes for inclusion in CrashHelp; and (3) expand the CrashHelp prototype to include aggregate level clinical and operational performance metrics that would provide valuable decision-level information for planners and practitioners.