Citation

Banitsas K, Tachakra S, Stefanidis E, Boletis K. Conf. Proc. IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc. 2008; 2008: 739-742.

Affiliation

School of Engineering and Design, E&CE, Brunel University, West London, and A&E Department, North West London Hospitals, England, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers))

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.2008.4649258

PMID

19162761

Abstract

As the demand for faster and more effective health care increases, there is a growing need to establish mobile, high-speed communications between a moving ambulance and a consultation point (usually a hospital). The recent addition of HSPA (HSDPA and HSUPA) into the UMTS suite provides higher bandwidth and reduced delays, making this choice ideal for real-time telemedical applications. In this paper, we will describe a set of scenarios that took place in a typical large city area, along with their equivalent results: a moving ambulance was linked with a consultation station using HSPA and several videoconferencing sessions were initiated. Best-case, worst-case and average scenarios were recorded. Furthermore, in areas where the UMTS reception was marginal, a repeater was placed on top of the vehicle to boost up the signal power and thus maintain the higher bandwidth. Finally, treating doctors were asked to evaluate the effectiveness of this system's outputs, based on a variety of objective and subjective criteria.

Language: en