Due to an increase in traffic collisions, the demand for prehospital medical services is on the rise, even in low-resource countries where emergency ambulance services have not been previously provided. To build a sustainable and continuous prehospital ambulance operation model, it is necessary to consider the medical system and economic conditions of the corresponding country. In an attempt to construct a prehospital ambulance operation model that ensures continuous operation, a pilot “emergency patient transporting service from field to hospital” operation was established for approximately three months in Kinshasa, the capital of the DR Congo. To construct a continuously operating model even after the pilot operation, willingness to pay (WTP) by type of emergency medical and transport service was investigated by implementing the contingent valuation method (CVM). Using CVM, the WTP for prehospital emergency services targeting ambulance services personnel, patients, policemen, and hospital staff participating in the pilot operation was calculated. The results of the pilot operation revealed that there were a total of 212 patients with a mean patient number of 2.4 per day. A total of 155 patients used the services for hospital transport, while 121 patients used the services for traffic collisions. Traffic collisions were the category in which ambulance services were most frequently needed (66.2%). Pay services were most frequently utilized in the home-visit services category (40.9%). Based on these results, eight independently operated ambulance operation models and sixteen models that utilize hospital medical personnel and policemen already belonging to existing institutions were proposed. In an effort to implement emergency medical ambulance services in the DR Congo, medical staff receiving pay for performance (incentive pay) should be deployed in the field and on call. Accordingly, with respect to sustainable development goals, various pay-for-service models should be used.

No abstract

Sepsis is an emergent infectious disease and a leading cause of death despite immediate intervention. While Delta neutrophil index (DNI) and myeloperoxidase (MPO) are known as a prodiagnostic marker of sepsis, the preclinical evidence of the best marker of sepsis is unclear. For this, using a well-designed cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-induced sepsis mouse model, we comparatively measured the level and cost-effectiveness of sepsis biomarkers such as DNI, myeloperoxidase (MPO), procalcitonin (PCT), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α). First, we found that the optimal time point for early detection is at 6 h, 24 h post-CLP. Strikingly, the peak level and fold change of DNI was revealed at 24 h, further showing the best fold change as compared with other biomarker levels. Given the fold change at 6, 24 h, PCT was next to DNI. Third, a cost-effectiveness survey showed that DNI was the best, with PCT next. Further, DNI level was moderate positively associated with PCT (ρ = 0.697, p = 0.012) and TNF-α (ρ = 0.599, p = 0.040). Collectively, these data indicate that DNI in CLP-induced sepsis mice is as effective as the existent inflammatory biomarkers such as MPO, PCT and TNF-α to predict the prognosis of sepsis. This might have clinically important implications that DNI is cost effective, thus quickly and rationally applying to diverse types of imminent sepsis regardless of species. This might be the first report on the validity of DNI in preclinical CLP-induced murine sepsis.