Wireless Mobile Telemedicine: En-Route Transmission With Dynamic Quality-of-Service Management

OVERVIEW For time-sensitive, critical-care scenarios requiring transport—such as stroke, high-risk pregnancy, trauma, and pediatric care—reducing the elapsed time between symptom onset and treatment can be of great benefit to the patient while reducing the health care costs to the individual, the hospital, and the public. With mobile telemedicine, valuable prehospital transport time can be used to diagnose and evaluate the patient en route. Heretofore, the usefulness of prehospital time has been limited to ensuring minimum life-support activities. The use of wireless communications linking prehospital providers with emergency care specialists can transform the prehospital phase of transport into a prehospital phase of treatment.