Automatic Information Exchange in the Early Rescue Chain Using the International Standard Accident Number (ISAN)

Abstract

Thus far, emergency calls are answered by human operators who interview the calling person in order to obtain all relevant information. In the near future—based on the Internet of (Medical) Things (IoT, IoMT)—accidents, emergencies, or adverse health events will be reported automatically by smart homes, smart vehicles, or smart wearables, without any human in the loop. Several parties are involved in this communication: the alerting system, the rescue service (responding system), and the emergency department in the hospital (curing system). In many countries, these parties use isolated information and communication technology (ICT) systems. Previously, the International Standard Accident Number (ISAN) has been proposed to securely link the data in these systems. In this work, we propose an ISAN-based communication platform that allows semantically interoperable information exchange. Our aims are threefold: (i) to enable data exchange between the isolated systems, (ii) to avoid data misinterpretation, and (iii) to integrate additional data sources. The suggested platform is composed of an alerting, responding, and curing system manager, a workflow manager, and a communication manager. First, the ICT systems of all parties in the early rescue chain register with their according system manager, which tracks the keep-alive. In case of emergency, the alerting system sends an ISAN to the platform. The responsible rescue services and hospitals are determined and interconnected for platform-based communication. Next to the conceptual design of the platform, we evaluate a proof-of-concept implementation according to (1) the registration, (2) channel establishment, (3) data encryption, (4) event alert, and (5) information exchange. Our concept meets the requirements for scalability, error handling, and information security. In the future, it will be used to implement a virtual accident registry.

One Digital Health Intervention for Monitoring Human and Animal Welfare in Smart Cities: Viewpoint and Use Case

“…In addition, a specific interpretation is also delivered for what concerns (1) citizen engagement and education aimed at information development and large-scale information gathering (so-called citizen science [ 94 ]) for first aid, basic health-related technologies, and sustainability using, for example, mobile apps to increase their penetration rate in the grand public and (2) interoperability from an industrial perspective to facilitate the interconnection and communication between the different IoT systems and alert systems to enhance end-to-end accident and disaster management [ 78 , 79 ].…”

“…Upon the occurrence of an event, such isolated data silos have to concatenate to build the complete informative understanding of the latest health status of the subject. The International Standard Accident Number (ISAN) takes over the role, aiming at (1) standardizing an event by associating a unique number (token) composed of time and location of the event and ID number, (2) automatically collecting the corresponding isolated data slices of the individual from the alerting system (ie, smart environments and wearables), (3) automatically generating the alert and transferring it to the responding system (ie, emergency service), and (4) simultaneously transferring the vital and nonvital data to the curing system (ie, hospital) for informing the medical personnel before the subject is delivered to the hospital [ 78 , 79 ].…”

Accident & Emergency Informatics and One Digital Health

“…Our aims are threefold: (i) to enable data exchange between the isolated systems, (ii) to avoid data misinterpretation, and (iii) to integrate additional data sources. Our concept meets the requirements for scalability, error handling, and information security [44].…”

“…Our implementation of the ISAN platform boosts intercommunication, the exchange of information, and services. We expect the healthcare sectors, stakeholders, emergency centers, and policymakers to accept the concept [41,44]. ISAN will contribute to public health in three stages: a Short-term: we integrate, test, and use the ISAN in the city of Brunswick.…”

Digital Emergency Management for a Complex One Health Landscape: the Need for Standardization, Integration, and Interoperability

“…Any rescue operation loops from measuring and event detecting via alerting and dispatching the rescue team towards timely delivering the medical help. Therefore, triggering this loop needs physiological and non-physiological monitoring by sensors and sensing devices [23].…”