Impact of Vehicular Networks on Emergency Medical Services in Urban Areas

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Chun-Liang Lee¹  Chung-Yuan Huang¹  Tzu-Chien Hsiao³  Chun-Yen Wu³  Yaw-Chung Chen² 

[1] Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, Chang Gung University, No. 259, Wen-Hwa 1st Road, Kwei-Shan, Tao-Yuan 33302, Taiwan; E-Mails:;Department of Computer Science, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 University Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan; E-Mail:;Department of Computer Science, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 University Road, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan; E-Mails:

关键词: emergency medical services;    cumulative survival ratio;    vehicular ad hoc networks;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph111111348

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The speed with which emergency personnel can provide emergency treatment is crucial to reducing death and disability among acute and critically ill patients. Unfortunately, the rapid development of cities and increased numbers of vehicles are preventing emergency vehicles from easily reaching locations where they are needed. A significant number of researchers are experimenting with vehicular networks to address this issue, but in most studies the focus has been on communication technologies and protocols, with few efforts to assess how network applications actually support emergency medical care. Our motivation was to search the literature for suggested methods for assisting emergency vehicles, and to use simulations to evaluate them. Our results and evidence-based studies were cross-referenced to assess each method in terms of cumulative survival ratio (CSR) gains for acute and critically ill patients. Simulation results indicate that traffic light preemption resulted in significant CSR increases of between 32.4% and 90.2%. Route guidance was found to increase CSRs from 14.1% to 57.8%, while path clearing increased CSRs by 15.5% or less. It is our hope that this data will support the efforts of emergency medical technicians, traffic managers, and policy makers.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.