A novel triage system using Bluetooth devices in support of incident management

Abstract

In this work, the design and implementation of a novel triage and victim identification system is presented. Triage-tags depict the classes of the medical emergency of victims using specific colors. The traditional triage-tags are made of paper and the triage color is permanently printed on the tags before the actual use. Using paper tags has many limitations, e.g. it is not easy to upgrade or down-grade the triage classes when a patient's condition changes. The triage-tags of the proposed solution are novel electronic devices with enhanced capabilities, including Bluetooth connectivity, aiming at replacing the legacy paper cards. These devices can emit light in different frequencies (so in different colors) and can be controlled using Bluetooth enabled devices such as computers or smartphones. The devices are also equipped with NFC passive tags, enabling the fast and easy connectivity with the computers/smartphones, but also the unique identification of victims. The process followed consists of three steps and requires no technical knowledge from the medical personnel: a) scanning the NFC tag attached to the device (in order to retrieve its unique identification), b) discovering and connecting to the device (using Bluetooth technology) and c) changing the emitted color (by sending the proper commands). The first prototype of this novel solution has been evaluated by emergency personnel and the preliminary results shows that the proposed system improves and simplifies the triage and victims identification procedures and enables the re-triaging of victims.