Project: EMS and the Applications of Modern Information Technology in Rural Communities

Venue: Accra, Ghana

Many rural communities in developing countries do not have good roads for transportation. Even in cities, daily traffic jams are common sights. To make things worse, telecommunications infrastructures in those communities are either absent or inefficient. All these problems hinder the efficient operations of EMS programs in developing countries, especially in rural and remote parts of the world. Medics Without Borders provides a solution to the above problems by showing how to deploy wireless technology to connect ambulances and hospitals/clinics. EMTs can transmit and receive patients' health records from a central health database whilst they are on en route to the scene and/or back to the hospital. The receiving health facilities can also access the patients' data and prepare for surgical interventions before the ambulances arrive at the hospitals/clinics.

The EMT crews and the hospital ER staff can share patients' health information in real time using the installed EMR on a wireless network