USA- According to an online news report posted on Rh.gatech.edu writes that a new device may soon be able to help EMTs and other medical providers treat patients suffering from injuries that cause blood loss. The devices are able to detect seismic vibrations in the patient’s chest and to evaluate the timing of heartbeats in […]
EMTs may benefit from wearable tech
USA- According to an online news report posted on Rh.gatech.edu writes that a new device may soon be able to help EMTs and other medical providers treat patients suffering from injuries that cause blood loss. The devices are able to detect seismic vibrations in the patient’s chest and to evaluate the timing of heartbeats in order to gauge the amount of blood the patient has lost.
Armed with the information provided by the device, the providers could make better decisions regarding the type of interventions and treatments they should be performing.
The Office of Naval Research is backing the research, which is part of a collaborative project. Georgia Tech, the Translational Training and Testing Laboratories in Atlanta, and the University of Maryland are all working together to develop the device.
In some cases, hemorrhages are not immediately obvious to first responders or doctors. Currently, heart rates and blood pressure measurements provide information to medical responders, but such indications are not always accurate depictions of the person’s blood loss.
Triage efforts must happen with extreme haste. The body goes to great lengths to regulate the vital signs that are used, and as such, may hide indications of more severe harm. In these cases, responders have to guess how much fluid to administer, and in cases with multiple victims, they have to determine which patients are most in need of emergency care.
The device would provide rapid responses that would help patients get treatment faster in a trauma scenario, but they could also be used to monitor patients during surgeries. In these cases, the devices would inform doctors if the patient was suffering from non-obvious losses of blood.
The tech could become common in E.R.s and on paramedics, and military medics in the field. The researchers also want to look for ways that similar technology could notify when there was too much fluid in a patient.
