Last update - 00:00 19/04/2007
Zaka scooters fitted with cameras linked to hospital in real-time
By Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondent
Two weeks ago, the ZAKA rescue and identification organization fitted five motor scooters with devices that transmit pictures of accident scenes and information about victims to Hadassah Medical Center-Ein Kerem. The real-time service allows medical teams to prepare for patients being sent to the emergency room, and to immediately advise staff in the field.
The broadcast system, produced by the Jerusalem-based company Servision, uses an ultramodern $2,500 camera installed on a special post on the scooter. When ZAKA volunteers arrive at a scene, they use the camera to transmit pictures via their cellphones to a computer in the hospital's trauma unit. Medical teams see accident victims on the screen long before they arrive. The pilot project will determine the feasibility of installing these units on other ZAKA vehicles in the future.
Professor Avi Rivkind, director of the Hadassah-Ein Kerem Department of Surgery and Trauma Unit, is very satisfied with the system's performance so far. "The system can save lives," he says. "The pictures are very important in our medical assessment. Many injured patients arrive here unconscious or drugged, and it is impossible to communicate with others soon after the incident because of their medical status. It is important to us to understand what happened and how in order to provide appropriate medical treatment.
"When we see what happened, in real time, and what happened in the field, the vehicles involved in an accident, where the injured were sitting in the car, and other details, we receive excellent information about how to best prepare to provide care."
Haim Weingarten, head of ZAKA's Rapid Rescue Motorcycle Unit, says the pilot project has thus far only been employed at minor traffic accidents. "We are currently examining where to locate the scooter so that it will not interfere with the arrival of emergency staff at the scene, but still make it possible to transmit useful pictures to medical staff in the hospital," he says.
"The pilot is still in diapers but the results of a number of experiments, during the last few days, are very encouraging," Professor Rivkind notes. He says that the system's ability to transmit pictures when it's dark outside was tested last week. "The experiment was conducted at about 8:00 P.M. and we received good quality pictures."
One advantage of the system is that it records and supports other information reported to the hospital. Rivkind says that for about a year already the Magen David Adom ambulance service has been sending pictures of emergency scenes to medical staff. "MDA volunteers sometimes e-mail us pictures from their homes. That helps us a great deal during the investigative phase," he said.
According to ZAKA and Hadassah officials, if the pilot is successful, the cameras will probably be installed on other motorcycles and emergency vehicles, and in the future will transmit pictures to the screens of doctors' cellphones. ZAKA Chairman Yehuda Meshi Zahav says that if the pilot succeeds, an attempt will be made to expand the system to other hospitals in the country.