ANSWER

ANSWER (Ambulance Networking System With Emergency Response)

During any emergency, the ultimate aim is to provide the right treatment at the exact right time or what is known as the “Platinum minutes”. However, most of the time lag for treatment occurs mainly as transfer of patient from incident to hospital is delayed. ANSWER was found as the answer to the age-old question of “ What can be done to quickly get the patient to definitive care?”. In the existing system, an emergency call is usually made to the police department who then looks for ambulances, makes multiple calls to different centers and finally a lots an available suitable ambulance for the patient. But ANSWER is comprehensive software consisting of 3 encrypted apps (for common man, ambulances & hospitals) & a single web portal for the networking center that will assist in quick & efficient ambulance transfers. The patient or bystander can make an ambulance call through our app/call. Current location of the call will be traced & the network center shall be intimated of the same.

Features

• The ANSWER app for the common man, not only allows in making emergency distress alerts, but also stores important health data of the person including blood group, existing diseases, medications that the person is currently using, etc. So when a distress call is made in the app, an option will pop up asking if this emergency alert is made for self or other, if self is chosen, then all the necessary medical data of the person shall also be forwarded to the networking center to make the necessary arrangements. If for other, then only the location will be shared.
• The networking center will have a web portal that shows all ambulances within the city with their availability statuses and also the location of hospitals nearest to the patient's location. The ambulances are also registered on the ANSWER app for ambulances. This app will automatically open with an alert when the networking center asks for acceptance of a transfer. If the request is accepted, the ambulance will be given the routes to the patient and the route from the patient’s side to the nearest hospital. Thus avoiding all communication delays.
• ANSWER app for hospitals provides a common platform where all hospitals can update their total bed availability, ICU bed availability, ventilator availability, super specialty availability etc. every 6 hours, thus helping the networking center to swiftly decide in assigning the patients.
• ANSWER system has also classified ambulances and hospitals according to needs of patients:
• Hospitals are classified into: Tier 1, Tier 2 & Tier 3; according the availability of specialties and treatment facilities such as ICUs, ventilators, etc. Tier 3 is the highest tertiary care center and shall be allocated to those patients requiring maximum care.
• Ambulances are classified into basic and advanced depending on the equipment available and paramedic presence.
• The type of care needed can be swiftly assessed by the networking center by asking the caller a small set of question, which are made available to them.
• With this innovative idea of correctly classifying the healthcare facilities, we ensure that the right amount of care is given to right patient and there is no wastage of resources.

This project was welcomed by the Government of Kerala and implemented and fully functioning with the help of the Police Department and IMA. The project is named as "Trauma Rescue Initiative" (TRI) & it is fully functioning now. The project was specially appreciated and officially inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Kerala Hon. Sri Pinarayi Vijayan in Dec 2017 with many prominent leaders across the country.