Health information exchange conquers new frontier: Emergency medical services

INDIANAPOLIS - Emergency medical responders typically know very little about the patients they treat at mass disasters, accident scenes, or other sites where an ambulance is dispatched for rapid response. That's true everyplace in the United States except Indianapolis, the capital of the most health-wired state in the nation. Regenstrief Institute investigators are the first in the nation to link emergency medical services providers (emergency medical technicians or paramedics) in the field to patients' preexisting health information, a link enabling the emergency workers to make more informed treatment decisions and to transport patients to the most appropriate facility. Typically, EMTs and paramedics lack even basic access to pre-existing patient information when delivering patient care in the field or at the scene of a... [read full story]                    

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