3 ms·

I was being a bit flippant in my initial post. I'm aware of (and quite excited about) the increased use of imaging (and various other labs) in the field. I exp

I was being a bit flippant in my initial post. I'm aware of (and quite excited about) the increased use of imaging (and various other labs) in the field. I expect in 5-10 years ultrasound will be quite common, and x-ray may not be too far behind (mostly for respiratory related stuff... tube confirmation, confirming pleural effusions, etc...)

rdl 13y ago
What would be cool would be using telerad (and telemed in general) to let some combination of family-caregiver, EMT, Paramedic, NPs, and doctors do both initial and definitive care in the field; should be a lot lower cost, both because it's cheaper and because it's better (old/sick/etc. people not being transported and then exposed to a bunch of other sick people would be a big win.)
- JshWright 13y ago
  I think (or at least hope) this is the direction medicine is headed in... In the early (Johnny and Roy) days, it was _all_ telemedicine (send the strip and start LR...). We slowly got away from that for a variety of reasons, and are just now heading back to it. While I'm not a huge fan of 'mother may I' medicine, I think it's crazy not to leverage the major advances in communications technology to bring a much broader range of specialties into the back of an ambulance. Some area are having a lot of success with Paramedic Practitioners. The idea being that the can a) handle 'routine' medical calls without a trip to the ER, and can b) make proactive welfare checks on known frequent fliers (brittle diabetics, etc), reducing the load on the EMS system in general. Obviously they're also available as advanced level providers when needed, but this gives them something to do (and bill for) in their downtime.
nobodysfool 13y ago
Even with x-ray available to paramedics, they don't get the type of training needed to understand what they are seeing on an x-ray and even then they wouldn't have the training to correct any issues or authority to prescribe treatment. The best they could do is get a radiogram and pass it on, but even then, they usually are not in the best position to dose out radiation, nor would their patients likely sit still, since the idea is to get them to a hospital or care provider ASAP.

rdl 13y ago

What would be cool would be using telerad (and telemed in general) to let some combination of family-caregiver, EMT, Paramedic, NPs, and doctors do both initial and definitive care in the field; should be a lot lower cost, both because it's cheaper and because it's better (old/sick/etc. people not being transported and then exposed to a bunch of other sick people would be a big win.)

JshWright 13y ago
I think (or at least hope) this is the direction medicine is headed in... In the early (Johnny and Roy) days, it was _all_ telemedicine (send the strip and start LR...). We slowly got away from that for a variety of reasons, and are just now heading back to it. While I'm not a huge fan of 'mother may I' medicine, I think it's crazy not to leverage the major advances in communications technology to bring a much broader range of specialties into the back of an ambulance. Some area are having a lot of success with Paramedic Practitioners. The idea being that the can a) handle 'routine' medical calls without a trip to the ER, and can b) make proactive welfare checks on known frequent fliers (brittle diabetics, etc), reducing the load on the EMS system in general. Obviously they're also available as advanced level providers when needed, but this gives them something to do (and bill for) in their downtime.

nobodysfool 13y ago

Even with x-ray available to paramedics, they don't get the type of training needed to understand what they are seeing on an x-ray and even then they wouldn't have the training to correct any issues or authority to prescribe treatment. The best they could do is get a radiogram and pass it on, but even then, they usually are not in the best position to dose out radiation, nor would their patients likely sit still, since the idea is to get them to a hospital or care provider ASAP.