An Electronic Triage Tag with Wireless Interconnectivity. Design and Implementation

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Electrotechnology, grade: 1.0, Fachhochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, language: English, abstract: In this thesis an electronic triage tag with wireless interconnectivity is developed, implemented and tested. The tag submits triage information to the incident command center over a wireless mesh network which is built up by the tags themselves. Furthermore the tag is wirelessly interfaceable with vital value sensors to allow live monitoring of patients. The developed device works autonomously, without any user intervention and is attached to colored bracelets which are already used for triage. There is no need to change the triager's work flow. The electronic triage tag is a time-efficient extension for existing triage tools to aid rescue forces in accelerated treatment and evacuation of victims. Mass Casualty Incidents (MCI) overwhelm medical resources and require the treatment of a large amount of patients within a very short time. Triage is a process used in MCIs to assign scarce medical resources to victims so that as many as possible can survive. Currently, the triage process is carried out with the help of a Paper Based Patient Tag with a unique ID, signaling the victim's treatment priority by its color (red, green, yellow or black). Paper-based triage strives for a fast and accurate treatment of victims, but it has problems with regard to the speed and accuracy of transmitting triage information. Live monitoring of victims' vital values is not possible because of the paper-based process and the lack of medical personnel. An electronic approach promises a faster situation overview and, thus, faster treatment of victims. However, the introduction of new systems must be done in a sensible way, so that the triager's process and workflow is not modified.