BURN DIAGNOSTIC AND INTERVENTION TOOL FOR EMERGENCY DISPATCH

• US 20110205052A1
• Filed: 02/24/2010
• Published: 08/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jeffrey J. Clawson
• Original Assignee: Jeffrey J. Clawson
• Inventors: Clawson, Jeffrey J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,294,570 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.12
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/107 Measuring physical dimensions, e.g. size of the entire body or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/445 Evaluating skin irritation or skin trauma, e.g. rash, eczema, wound, bed sore
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/747 in case of emergency, i.e. alerting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/357 Autocues for dialog assistance
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 for emergency applications

Abstract

A system and method to assist an emergency medical dispatcher in responding to emergency calls is disclosed. A computer-implemented emergency dispatch protocol is provided that includes interrogatories for a dispatcher to ask a caller to generate an appropriate response. A diagnostic tool is provided to aid a dispatcher in calculating a burn surface area of a patient. The diagnostic tool calculates the burn surface area based on caller relayed information about the areas of the patient'"'"'s body that are burned. The burn calculation may be based on the Rule of Nines methodology. The diagnostic tool can be launched automatically by the emergency dispatch protocol, or manually as desired by a dispatcher. The diagnostic tool presents a user interface that may provide, among other things, instructions, a visual portrayal of the human body, and input fields.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to assist a dispatcher when communicating with a caller via telephone regarding a medical emergency of a patient, comprising:

a dispatch center computer system providing an emergency dispatch protocol to assist the dispatcher, the protocol presenting a plurality of pre-scripted interrogatories for the dispatcher to ask the caller to gather information regarding the emergency and generate an emergency dispatch response by emergency responders;

the dispatch center computer system initiating a diagnostic tool on the dispatch center computer, the diagnostic tool configured to assist the dispatcher in determining a burn surface area on the patient; and

the diagnostic tool presenting to the dispatcher a user interface comprising a portrayal of a human body divided into a plurality of sections to enable a dispatcher to quickly sum a surface area of each of the sections that correspond to burned areas of the patient'"'"'s body to determine the burn surface area of the patient.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the surface area of each of the plurality of sections includes an indication of an approximate percentage of the total surface area of the portrayed human body.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sections represent a multiple of nine percent of the total surface area of the portrayed human body.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sections of the human body portrayed on the user interface include:

face, back of head, chest and abdomen, back, front of right arm, front of left arm, back of right arm, back of left arm, front of right leg, front of left leg, back of right leg, and back of left leg.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the plurality of sections of the human body portrayed on the user interface further include:

genitalia, front of neck, and back of neck.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sections comprise at least eleven sections, each section representing approximately nine percent of the total surface area of the portrayed human body.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the eleven sections of the human body portrayed on the user interface are:

head, right arm, left arm, chest, abdomen, upper back, lower back, front of right leg, front of left leg, back of right leg, and back of left leg.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the eleven sections of the human body portrayed on the user interface are:

head, right arm, left arm, chest, abdomen, upper back, lower back, right thigh, left thigh, right leg (below the knee), and left leg (below the knee)

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising the diagnostic tool receiving dispatcher-entered input indicative of caller-relayed information concerning the caller'"'"'s observations of the burned areas of the patient'"'"'s body, wherein the caller'"'"'s observations are vocally relayed over the telephone to the dispatcher.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the dispatcher-entered input corresponds to one or more of the plurality of sections of the body.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising the diagnostic tool calculating the burn surface area on the patient'"'"'s body based on the received dispatcher-entered input indicative of the caller relayed information.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising the diagnostic tool communicating to the emergency dispatch protocol the results of the calculation of the burn surface area of the patient.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising the dispatch center computer system determining a priority for the emergency medical dispatch response based on the results of the diagnostic tool calculation of the burn surface area of the patient

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the dispatch center computer system determining the priority further comprises determining a determinant value.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the diagnostic tool calculating the burn surface area comprises estimating the percentage of the patient'"'"'s body that is burned.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising the dispatch center computer system communicating to the diagnostic tool information relating to the age of the patient gathered by the emergency dispatch protocol, and wherein the portrayal of the human body presented by the diagnostic tool user interface is one of a portrayal of an infant, a portrayal of a child, and a portrayal of an adult, based on the age of the patient.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the dispatch center computer system initiates the diagnostic tool based on dispatcher-entered input indicative of one or more responses of the caller to the interrogatories presented to the dispatcher by the protocol.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising the dispatch center computer system presenting to the dispatcher an emergency dispatch protocol user interface having a diagnostic tool launch input to initiate the diagnostic tool, wherein the dispatch center computer system initiates the diagnostic tool in response to the diagnostic tool launch input.

19. A computer-implemented method to assist a dispatcher when communicating with a caller via telephone regarding a medical emergency of a patient, comprising:

a dispatch center computer system providing an emergency dispatch protocol to assist the dispatcher, the protocol presenting a plurality of pre-scripted interrogatories for the dispatcher to ask the caller to gather information regarding the emergency and generate an emergency dispatch response by emergency responders;

the dispatch center computer system initiating a diagnostic tool on the dispatch center computer, the diagnostic tool configured to assist the dispatcher in determining a burn surface area on the patient;

the diagnostic tool presenting to the dispatcher a user interface;

the diagnostic tool receiving dispatcher-entered input indicative of caller relayed information concerning the caller'"'"'s observations of the burned areas of the patient'"'"'s body, wherein the caller'"'"'s observations are vocally relayed over the telephone to the dispatcher;

the diagnostic tool calculating a burn surface area on the patient'"'"'s body based on the dispatcher-entered input indicative of the caller relayed information; and

the diagnostic tool providing the results of the calculation of the burn surface area of the patient.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the diagnostic tool user interface comprises a portrayal of a human body divided into a plurality of sections, and wherein the dispatcher-entered input corresponds to the plurality of sections.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the diagnostic tool providing the results of the calculation of the burn surface area of the patient comprises the diagnostic tool displaying the results of the calculation via the user interface.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the diagnostic tool providing the results of the calculation of the burn surface area of the patient comprises the diagnostic tool communicating the results of the calculation to the emergency dispatch protocol.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising the dispatch center computer system presenting to the dispatcher an emergency dispatch protocol user interface having a diagnostic tool launch input to initiate the diagnostic tool, wherein the dispatch center computer system initiates the diagnostic tool in response to the diagnostic tool launch input.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further comprising the diagnostic tool providing input fields via the user interface, wherein the input fields are associated with sections of the portrayal of the human body such that the dispatcher can enter input indicative of which sections of the patient'"'"'s body are burned.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, wherein the input fields comprise clickable areas on the sections of the portrayal of the human body of the diagnostic tool user interface, such that a dispatcher can click on a clickable area of a section of the portrayal of the human body to indicate to the diagnostic tool that the corresponding section of the patient'"'"'s body is burned.

26. A computer-readable storage medium including computer-readable instruction code for performing a method to assist a dispatcher when communicating with a caller via telephone regarding a medical emergency of a patient, the method comprising:

a dispatch center computer system providing an emergency dispatch protocol to assist the dispatcher, the protocol presenting a plurality of pre-scripted interrogatories for the dispatcher to ask the caller to gather information regarding the emergency and generate an emergency dispatch response by emergency responders;

the dispatch center computer system initiating a diagnostic tool on the dispatch center computer, the diagnostic tool configured to assist the dispatcher in determining a burn surface area on the patient; and

the diagnostic tool presenting to the dispatcher a user interface comprising a portrayal of a human body divided into a plurality of sections to enable a dispatcher to quickly sum a surface area of each of the sections that correspond to burned areas of the patient'"'"'s body to determine the burn surface area of the patient.

27. A computer system to perform a method to assist a dispatcher when communicating with a caller via telephone regarding a medical emergency of a patient, the computer system comprising:

a processor;

an input device in electrical communication with the processor;

an output device in electrical communication with the processor; and

a memory in electrical communication with the processor, and having stored thereon;

an emergency dispatch protocol including a plurality of pre-scripted interrogatories for a dispatcher to ask a caller to generate an emergency dispatch response; and

a diagnostic tool to assist the dispatcher in determining the burn surface area of the patient, wherein the diagnostic tool is configured to present to the dispatcher a user interface comprising a portrayal of a human body divided into a plurality of sections.

28. The computer system of claim 27, wherein the diagnostic tool is further configured to calculate the burn surface area of the patient based on input provided by the dispatcher to the diagnostic tool via the user interface.

29. The computer system of claim 27, wherein the diagnostic tool is further configured to provide to the emergency dispatch protocol the burn surface area of the patient.

30. The computer system of claim 27, further comprising a determinant value calculator stored on the memory to calculate a determinant value to prioritize an emergency response, wherein the diagnostic tool is configured to provide to the determinant value calculator the burn surface area of the patient.

31. The computer system of claim 27, further comprising a reporting module stored on the memory to measure the performance of a dispatcher, wherein the diagnostic tool is configured to provide to the reporting module the burn surface area of the patient.