ralph- I wasn't making that up...here's a link:
First Take
Comment and commentary on events in government and technology
Tom Temin
04/12/06 -- 04:05 PM
By Tom Temin
If I poop out, take me to Mass General
I have a new convergence.
My hobby of running marathons has converged with e-government and agency systems that we cover in GCN. I’ll be one of 20,000 guinea pigs for a new patient tracking system to be tested in a federal-state partnership during this Monday’s 110th annual Boston Marathon.
Each runner will have a bar code on his or her number bib. Should something happen during or at the end of the race, that bar code will be scanned by a volunteer using a device from Symbol Technologies Inc. The basic data in the bar code—the runner’s race registration information—becomes the basis for a patient record that will stay associated with that bib should the person need transportation or hospitalization.
Runners come from all over the world to participate in the historic Boston Marathon. In nearly every marathon, a very small number of people pass out, or die of heart attacks or hyponatremia. Heat stroke if it’s warm enough. Mostly folks are beset by dehydration, sprains, Olympic-class blisters and bloodily chafed body parts, cramps, nausea, leg muscle lockup and just plain running out of gas. If you drop out (no, I never have) a vehicle humiliatingly called the “sag wagon” fetches you. My personal worst moment comes running by Fenway Park around Mile 25, when I ask myself why I’m not in there watching the game and drinking beer. The Mariners will be in Boston that day.
Anyhow, the patient tracking system is the brain child of Dr. David Urso, a regional director of the Emergency Management Strategic Healthcare Group in Veterans Affairs. The user in this test will be the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Urso told me the idea came to him after Hurricane Katrina, when VA responders were unable to identify the thousands of people—some unconscious--being loaded onto C-130s for removal to the Strategic Healthcare Group’s various locations. Debriefings with federal officials showed the need for a patient tracking system.
“San Antonio got 9,000 patients. Doctors and nurses didn’t know anything about the patients. Some were lost or misplaced,” he said.
Urso is responsible for Boston Logan Airport.
At Boston Monday, race personnel will have scanned in all the medical tents along the way and in stations manned by MDPH people and people from the Homeland Security Department.
“This coincides with patient tracking plans for a national event,” Urso said. |
