EP-4740219-A1 - METHOD OF PROVIDING A MEDICAL ASSISTANCE DEVICE FOR USE BY A NON-MEDICALLY TRAINED PERSON, AND DEVICE AND NETWORK THEREOF

EP4740219A1EP 4740219 A1EP4740219 A1EP 4740219A1EP-4740219-A1

Abstract

A method, control system implemented in a cloud computing environment and device for providing a medical-assistance-device for use by a non-medically trained person at a scene of an accident or incident to a person in need of medical attention, comprising: a) providing a medical-assistance-device network, the network comprising: a plurality of medical-assistance-devices stowed at various publicly accessible locations across a predetermined geographical area, wherein the medical-assistance-device comprises a selection of medicines; and a control centre for the medical-assistance-device network; wherein a data connection between each of the medical-assistance-devices in the network and the control centre is periodically activated; and b) establishing a communication connection with an emergency services operator by a user; c) locating a medical-assistance- device in the network that is closest to the person in need of medical assistance and establishing a data connection between said closest medical-assistance- device and the control centre; d) manual retrieval of said closest medical- assistance-device at the publicly accessible location; e) manually transporting the closest medical-assistance-device to the person in need of medical assistance; f) making the closest medical-assistance-device accessible when it arrives at a scene of the accident or incident; g) based on an analysis of the medical assistance required of the person in need of medical attention, providing instruction on a use of the medical-assistance-device.

Inventors

LAURITSEN, Trond
ROGNE, Synnøve

Assignees

Aidency AS

Dates

Publication Date: 20260513
Application Date: 20240705

Claims (19)

1 . A method of providing a medical-assistance-device for use by a non- medically trained person at a scene of an accident or incident to a person in need of medical attention, comprising: a) providing a medical-assistance-device network, the network comprising: a plurality of medical-assistance-devices stowed at various publicly accessible locations across a predetermined geographical area, wherein the medical-assistance-device comprises a selection of medicines; and a control centre for the medical-assistance-device network; wherein a data connection between each of the medical-assistance- devices in the network and the control centre is periodically activated; and b) establishing a communication connection with an emergency services operator by a user; c) locating a medical-assistance-device in the network that is closest to the person in need of medical assistance and establishing a data connection between said closest medical-assistance-device and the control centre; d) manual retrieval of said closest medical-assistance-device at the publicly accessible location; e) manually transporting the closest medical-assistance-device to the person in need of medical assistance; f) making the closest medical-assistance-device accessible when it arrives at a scene of the accident or incident; g) based on an analysis of the medical assistance required of the person in need of medical attention, providing instruction on a use of the medical- assistance-device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises providing a personal computer application, said application comprising instructions for use of each of the selection of medicines in the medical-assistance-device, the personal computer application data communicable with the control centre.
3. The method of any preceding claim, wherein the medical assistance device further comprises a location tracking device, the method further comprising: h) locating by the emergency services operator and/or the control centre, a geographical location of the scene of the accident or incident; i) receiving, by the control centre, location data from the device to track the transportation of the device to the person in need of medical assistance in order to determine when the device arrives at a scene of the accident or incident.
4. The method of any preceding claim, wherein activating the closest medical- assistance-device when it arrives at a scene of the accident or incident further comprises the step of: j.1 ) putting the device into an unlocked state by remotely unlocking a remote-control lock such that the user can access a contents of the medical- assistance-device; or j.2) wherein the medical-assistance-device comprises a mechanical codebased lock, retrieving the code for the particular medical-assistance-device and transmitting said code.
5. The method of any preceding claim, wherein each of the plurality of medical-assistance-devices in the network have a control module and at least one sensor for gathering use-related data, the method further comprises: k) uploading said use-related data from each of the plurality of medical- assistance-devices in the network to the control centre during periodic activation of the data connection.
6. The method of any preceding claim, wherein locating a medical-assistance- device in the network that is closest to the person in need of medical assistance comprises: l) selecting an area around the scene of the accident or incident determined by a predetermined radius; m) identifying all of the medical-assistance-devices falling within the selected area; and n) analysing, by the control centre, a transport time from a stowage location to the scene for each of the identified medical-assistance-devices falling within the selected area, wherein analysing the transport time comprises adjusting for at least one of live traffic conditions, landscape topography, and route configuration.
7. A control system implemented in a cloud computing environment for management of a medical-assistance-device network, management of the use of a medical-assistance-device in said medical-assistance-device network and serve as a connection interface to different users in the medical-assistance-device network comprising: a data connection module configured to be in data communication with a plurality of medical device units in a medical device network, and to be in communication with an emergency services operator, and to be in communication with a personal computer device of a person at a scene of an accident or incident; a location module configured to receive location data on a location of a person in need of medical assistance; a logistics module configured to locate at least one medical-assistance devices in a predetermined vicinity of the person in need of medical assistance and identify a nearest available medical-assistance-device of the at least one medical-assistance-devices; a device authorisation module which receives an authorisation request through the data connection module to unlock a particular device in a device network; the device authorisation module configured to remotely unlock the particular device upon receiving a valid authorisation request; a monitoring module configured to remotely and periodically monitor an integrity state of each of the devices in the device network via the data connection module to monitor an integrity state of each of the devices.
8. The control system of claim 7, wherein: the location module comprises computer readable media with instructions that, when executed on a processor, performs step c) of claim 1 ; the device authorisation module comprises computer readable media with instructions that, when executed on a processor, performs step f) of claim 1 ; and the instruction module comprises computer readable media with instructions that, when executed on a processor, performs step g) of claim 1 .
9. The control system of claim 7 or claim 8, wherein the data connection module comprises computer readable media with instructions that, when executed on a processor perform steps h) and i) of claim 3.
10. The control system of any of claims 7 to 9, wherein the device authorisation module comprises computer readable media with instructions that, when executed on a processor perform steps j.1 ) or j.2) of claim 4.
11 . The control system of any of claims 7 to 10, wherein the data connection module comprises computer readable media with instructions that, when executed on a processor performs step k) of claim 5.
12. The control system of any of claims 7 to 11 , wherein the data connection module comprises computer readable media with instructions that, when executed on a processor perform steps I), m) and n) of claim 6.
13. The control system of any of claims 7 to 12, further configured to track a location and status of each of a device caretaker to optimise a logistics of carrying out step c) of claim 1 , wherein the nearest available medical-assistance-device is measured in terms of time or distance for travel.
14. A medical-assistance-device for use in a network of publicly accessible medical devices, the medical-assistance-device comprising: an external housing comprising: a lid part; and a base part; an internal housing for storing medicine to be stored in the device; a control module for enabling data communication to a control centre; and a remote-controlled device lock configured to be remotely unlocked by a control centre when the control centre identifies that the device has arrived at a scene of a medical accident or incident.
15. The device of claim 14, wherein the internal housing comprises a plurality of recesses each recess configured to individually house one of a plurality of separate medicines.
16. The device of any of claims 8 to 11 , wherein the selection of medicines stored in the recesses of the internal housing comprises nitro-glycerine; at least one epinephrine auto-injectors, at least one glucagon nose injector and at least one insulin pen.
17. A medical-assistance-device network comprising: a plurality of the medical-assistance-devices according to any of claims 14 to 17, each medical-assistance-device having a stowage location in a publicly accessible area, said stowage locations distributed across a predetermined geographical area; and the control system of any of claims 7 to 13; wherein each of the plurality of medical-assistance-devices in the network are data-connectable to the control system.
18. The network of claim 17, further comprising at least one allocated caretaker for each medical-assistance-device in the plurality of medical-assistance-devices in the network; and a personal computer device associated with each caretaker in the network, wherein each personal computer device is enabled with an application which is data-connectable to the control centre for receiving notifications about the network and/or a respective medical-assistance-device.
19. Use of the medical-assistance-device network of claim 17 or 18, in the method of claims 1 to 6.

Description

METHOD OF PROVIDING A MEDICAL ASSISTANCE DEVICE FOR USE BY A NON-MEDICALLY TRAINED PERSON, AND DEVICE AND NETWORK THEREOF Background Ambulance services play a crucial role in modern society by providing emergency medical care to people who are in urgent need of assistance. However, there are several problems associated with ambulance services that can have negative consequences, including waiting times to get to the scene of an incident. One of the main issues with ambulance services is the long waiting times that people often experience when they call for emergency medical assistance. Some medical emergencies and injuries are such that the longer a patient is experiencing the medical emergency/injury the odds of permanent damage or loss of life are dramatically increased. Thus, early intervention in these situations is imperative. The goal for an ambulance service is to arrive at the scene of an emergency within a short timeframe to increase the chances of patient survival and/or reduced patient suffering and permanent damage. For example, in Norway the target for an ambulance to arrive on scene is within 12 minutes in densely populated areas, and 25 minutes for rural areas, of receiving a call. However, this target is often missed due to delay. This delay can be caused by a range of factors, including a shortage of ambulances, insufficient staff, heavy traffic, challenging landscape topography creating poor accessibility, and a high volume of emergency calls. Insufficient medical professionals is a growing problem, especially in western countries experiencing an ageing population. Delays in ambulance response times can have a significant impact on patient outcomes. For example, it has been investigated that for every minute of delay in ambulance response time, the odds of survival for patients with a cardiac arrest decreased by 7.5%. Furthermore, it has been investigated that delays in ambulance response times can also result in permanent damage or disability for patients. For example, it has been investigated that patients who experienced a stroke and were delayed in receiving appropriate medical care had a higher risk of long-term disability and a poorer quality of life. The negative consequences of these problems can be significant, and may include delayed medical treatment, increased morbidity and mortality rates, and decreased patient satisfaction. In order to address these issues, new technologies and equipment are required to improve response times and patient outcomes. It is an object of the invention to provide a method, device and system to address the above-outlined problem associated with the waiting time for an ambulance service to arrive on scene and in particular reduce a loss of life probability as a result of said waiting times. Summary of the Invention According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of providing a medical-assistance-device for use by a non-medically trained person at a scene of an accident or incident to a person in need of medical attention, comprising: a) providing a medical-assistance-device network, the network comprising: a plurality of medical-assistance-devices stowed at various publicly accessible locations across a predetermined geographical area, wherein the medical-assistance-device comprises a selection of medicines; and a control centre for the medical- assistance-device network; wherein a data connection between each of the medical-assistance-devices in the network and the control centre is periodically activated; and b) establishing a communication connection with an emergency services operator by a user; c) locating a medical-assistance-device in the network that is closest to the person in need of medical assistance and establishing a data connection between said closest medical-assistance-device and the control centre; d) manual retrieval of said closest medical-assistance-device at the publicly accessible location; e) manually transporting the closest medical- assistance-device to the person in need of medical assistance; f) making the closest medical-assistance-device accessible when it arrives at a scene of the accident or incident; g) based on an analysis of the medical assistance required of the person in need of medical attention, providing instruction on a use of the medical-assistance-device. The method may further comprise providing a personal computer application, said application comprising instructions for use of each of the selection of medicines in the medical-assistance-device, the personal computer application data communicable with the control centre. The medical assistance device may further comprise a location tracking device, the method further comprising: h) locating by the emergency services operator and/or the control centre, a geographical location of the scene of the accident or incident; i) receiving, by the control centre, location data from the device to track the transportation of the device to t