DHS develops medical scanner-at-a-distance device
The first task of first responders arriving on a scene of a disaster is quickly and accurately to sort the living casualties by priority order for medical care; new device assesses — from a distance — the medical condition of those injured in the disaster; it does so by using laser doppler vibrometry and a camera to measure pulse, body temperature, and muscle movements such as breathing
The researchers at DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) never rest. Here is the latest: They are on the way to developing a device able to monitor a person’s medical condition from forty feet away. The Standoff Patient Triage Tool (SPTT) is described in the latest issue of the inhouse newsletter, S&T Snapshots.
The SPTT aims to help out first responders arriving at the scene of a major disaster. One of the first tasks of these first responders is quickly and accurately sort the living casualties by priority order for medical care — or “triage,” as they call it. “We thought, ‘Boy, wouldn’t it be nice if a responder, fully clothed in an emergency suit, could have a technology to take vital signs quickly from 5 to 40 feet away?’” says Greg Price of DHS S&T.
Lewis Page writes that, normally, triage involves a time-consuming process of checking pulse, respiration, bleeding, and other vital signs by individual contact on each patient. What often does not help is the fact that some casualties, while in fact not in very serious trouble compared to others, may be screaming, bleeding, or otherwise drawing attention to themselves while someone else, too injured to raise his or voice, is quietly dying in the corner. “Human nature is to pay attention to the person who is screaming and bleeding, but someone else with a less obvious internal injury may need to be the first priority,” says Price. “In the case of large-scale triage, it is not always the squeaky wheel that needs the grease. The SPTT may someday help first responders hear a lot more from their patients, and much more quickly.”
The SPTT, which is to be “about the size of a legal notebook and as a thick as a ream of paper,” works using laser doppler vibrometry and a camera to measure pulse, body temperature, and muscle movements such as breathing. The S&T researchers believe it could get full vital-signs readings from a good 10 meters off provided it has line-of-sight to a suitable body part. It seems the carotid artery is best, but good readings have been obtained from all over the body - even from a foot.
According to S&T Snapshots, “Star Trek fans will recognize [the SPTT] for its resemblance to the medical diagnostic tool known as the tricorder … Despite its promise, the SPTT is not quite as a sophisticated as the tricorder. For instance, the tricorder was able to comprehensively diagnose obscure diseases [and the SPTT can’t] … science fiction remains on the big screen for the moment.”
The SPTT will be moving out of the lab shortly. It is supposed to get field trials with US paramedics this autumn.
