Device Promises To Make Treating Injuries Faster In Disaster

Share

By By Michelle Esteban

Summary

Iomedex's IRIS patient tracker is a software system that records patient's vitals, injuries, location, treatment and even their photo.

Story Published: Jul 25, 2005 at 2:44 PM PDT

Story Updated: Jul 24, 2009 at 12:02 PM PDT

Device Promises To Make Treating Injuries Faster In Disaster
SEATTLE - In a disaster, such as an earthquake or a terror attack, it can be pandemonium for rescuers trying to deal with dozens, maybe even hundreds of patients.

But new technology is helping make sure that injured people don't get lost in the chaos. It's a patient tracker.

At last week's mock plane crash and drill near Sea-Tac Airport, emergency crews practiced emergency care and tried out a new high tech tool called IRIS: Incident Response Information System.

"Everybody has an instant count of how many patients we're seeing so far," Keith Howard, Port of Seattle Firefighter.

It's a software system that records patient's vitals, injuries, location, treatment and even their photo.

Instead of tying up an emergency radio, the encrypted information is wirelessly beamed to participating hospitals and emergency operations centers.

It's the brainchild of Peter Simpson and Del Wilson of Iomedex. The hope is the faster hospitals get patient info, the better prepared they'll be.

"That's really the bottom-line, the potential to save lives 'cause information to take care of people flows quicker than it does right now," says Iomedex CEO Del Wilson.

Each patient gets a bar-coded wristband. Scanned in is their name, age and injuries.

Iris even takes their photo and a picture of their injuries. All of it gets scanned into a secured Website -- and it's fast.

"The first responders have been able to triage patients within 23 seconds -- takes longer for patient to answer information than get info into the system," says Iomedex Chief Technology Officer Peter Simpson.

Hospitals and emergency information centers see a scorecard of the injuries and a color coded system that ranks patients in order of needed care.

"I thought it was fabulous, I liked the idea you could track patient from point of origin until final destination point," says Overlake Hospital's Valeria Novotny-Dinsdale.

She tried out the system in two mock drills. Novotny-Dinsdale found an added benefit. In mock disasters, family looking for loved ones could find them.

Right now, only a handful of hospitals and first responders are using IRIS. Without cooperating hospitals, the company admits the system is not as effective.

Iomedex says it's negotiating with the state in hopes of securing an agreement with the Department of Health. The hope is to implement IRIS statewide.

The software also identifies and credentials emergency care workers and coordinates communication between different agencies.

"Is that really a firefighter, is it really a Red Cross worker or a police officer? You just can't trust the credentials or a uniform anymore," says Simpson.