medDV completes the digital rescue chain with IoT

When the ambulance arrives at the scene of an accident, the paramedics begin providing professional care. In addition, these specialists must document the patient’s condition and the measures they are taking to ensure appropriate follow-up treatment in hospital. Until just over 20 years ago, this was done predominantly using analogue methods: “When we started out back then, there were an incredible number of media breaks in the ambulance service,” says Gunter Ernst, CEO and co-founder of medDV. “The control centre would relay the call-out address by radio. At the scene, we would record vital signs, medication administered and the patient’s condition by hand on paper. We would hand this record over at the hospital, and the staff there would try to decipher the handwritten notes.” 

Added to this was the verbal chain of communication: in the event of a road traffic accident, information about the patient would be passed from the ambulance crew to the fire brigade, from there to the incident command vehicle, on to the control centre and finally by telephone to the hospital. At every stage, there was a risk that the information would arrive incomplete or incorrect. “If a medical team was on standby expecting a seriously injured patient, and the patient only had a laceration, that was hugely inefficient,” says Ernst. “In the opposite scenario, however, it could become life-threatening.” 

Gunter Ernst and his co-founder Carsten Rausch worked for many years as paramedics with the Johanniter, including on air ambulances. In order to digitise the emergency response chain, they founded medDV in Fernwald, Central Hesse, in 2003. 

Road traffic accidents on motorways, operations in rural areas, major incident scenarios – a reliable data connection is essential in all these situations. medDV relies on Deutsche Telekom’s roaming IoT SIM cards. These automatically connect to the strongest available mobile network and ensure fail-safe data transmission. “For us, it is essential that communication between the emergency services, the control centre and the hospital works reliably,” says Ernst. “A roaming SIM card offers major advantages here, as it provides access to more than one network.”

Patient data is subject to strict data protection requirements. medDV therefore encrypts all data twice: via a secure connection through which the encrypted files pass. A SIM-based VPN further restricts data traffic: the SIM card communicates exclusively with the medDV servers. The company’s management systems are ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified. 

The key advantage of this solution becomes apparent in the hospital. When a patient arrives, hospital staff must first carry out triage: who should be treated first? Thanks to the digitalisation of the emergency response chain, this prioritisation begins even before the ambulance arrives. The hospital knows the patient, their condition and their needs, and can make the necessary preparations. The cardiac catheterisation laboratory is available, the CT scan has been booked, and the patient’s details have already been entered into the hospital information system.

The patient bypasses A&E and goes straight to treatment. “We’re talking about a saving of up to 30 minutes,” says Ernst. “In the case of a heart attack or stroke, this isn’t just a matter of convenience, but a medically significant time advantage.”

Emergency services also benefit: comprehensive digital documentation is automatically fed into billing and quality assurance processes. The medical director of the emergency services receives timely reports on the number of call-outs, common emergency scenarios and the quality of care provided. Knowing which emergencies occur most frequently in their district enables them to plan training more effectively and equip vehicles more appropriately. 

medDV is expanding beyond Germany. The company is also the market leader in Austria and operates in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Spain and, more recently, the United Arab Emirates. This international expansion follows a clear principle: markets with well-developed emergency services and trained specialist staff are a priority for medDV.

The roaming capability of the SIM cards, as well as Telekom’s global IoT network, represent a strategic advantage for this expansion. One device, one SIM card, one framework agreement – and the NIDApad works in any country that has a compatible mobile network. 

Looking ahead, medDV is planning further steps in collaboration with Telekom. Network prioritisation, for example, is on the agenda: particularly in the event of major incidents, when thousands of people are placing a strain on the mobile network at the same time, the emergency services are to be given priority. Telemedicine is also becoming increasingly important – that is, the ability to bring medical expertise from the hospital directly to the scene of the incident. It is already possible to connect a tele-emergency doctor via livestream using the NIDApad to provide paramedics with advice and practical support.