[Courtesy of the National Fire Agency]
SEOUL -- Through a four-month demonstration, the National Fire Agency has commercialized an on-site video medical instruction system to provide professional assistant for emergency workers who need to treat seriously ill patients.
The current law requires emergency workers to receive doctors' instructions through phone calls when carrying out emergency treatment for patients in critical conditions. For example, an emergency worker must receive orders from a doctor when he or she is about to insert an endotracheal tube to a patient that suffered a cardiac arrest inside an ambulance. However, it is hard for the doctor to clearly check the condition of the patient through a phone call.
The video medical instruction system was demonstrated at the central cities of Daejeon and Sejong in February 2021 before it was commercialized on June 30, the National Fire Agency said in a statement. Through the system, doctors can examine patients through real-time video feeds and provide instructions. Through the demonstration period, doctors and emergency workers were able to resuscitate about 62 cardiac arrest patients using the video medical instruction system.
The commercialized system will connect some 414 doctors to provide instruction for emergency workers. The system can simultaneously link up to 16 personnel so that emergency workers, doctors and emergency room surgeons can check the condition of a patient and prepare for appropriate treatment before the ambulance arrives at a hospital.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
