The Emergency Medical Team Operating System: design, implementation, and evaluation of a field hospital information management system

Abstract

In case of sudden-onset disasters (SODs), the World Health Organization deploys specialized emergency medical teams (EMTs); yet, the coordination and operation of such teams pose significant challenges. One issue is the lack of digital information systems and standards. We developed a highly customizable and scalable electronic medical record (EMR) system, tailored to EMT requirements, called the "Emergency Medical Team Operating System" (EOS). EOS was successfully tested through 9 realistic clinical tasks during a full-scale EU Module Exercise. During the initial evaluation, 21 team members from 9 countries evaluated the system positively, stressing the urgent need for an EMR for EMTs. EMTs face unique challenges during disaster relief missions. To provide an effective and coordinated delivery of care, there is a great need for an EMR tailored to the specific needs of EMTs. EOS may serve as an effective EMR during SOD missions.

Keywords: disaster preparedness; electronic medical record; emergency medical team; emergency medicine; hospital information system.

Figure 1.

EOS uses a card-based approach to visualize patient-specific information. The card colors indicate if the card was changed since the last visit of the user.

Figure 2.

Depiction of clinical findings on the schematic patient in EOS.

Figure 3.

The EOS command view provides a quick overview of the current status of the facility by providing information about admitted patients, their triage categories, department workload, etc.