The Challenge – Making Every Second Count

For EMTs every second counts, and can literally mean the difference between life and death. As such, having real-time access to a patient’s medical history can be critical in the first stages of treatment. With the goal of providing the best care possible, the FDNY Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) wanted to provide their EMTs with the ability to securely connect to the New York Health Information Exchange (NYHIE) in transit to the hospital, to be able to access patient treatment records and communicate with the doctors at the hospital preparing to receive the incoming patients. Achieving this goal, however, was not as easy as expected, with initial attempts failing due to the many transmission challenges associated with maintaining a continuous, secure connection from a fast-moving vehicle in a dense, urban environment.

The Solution

After several unsuccessful attempts, the FDNY EMTs succeeded by partnering with Edge Velocity. Through the deployment of the Edge Velocity’s proprietary, wireless solutions, the FDNY EMTs were able to provide secure and reliable access to the NYHIE from hundreds of vehicles moving anywhere in the New York City metropolitan area.

Source: DRS Technologies Press Release