The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program has awarded $1.96 million to a pair of businesses to aid emergency communication network risk management assessments. Orem, Utah-based Achilles Heel Technologies and...

Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) today announced that it has made a new service available to the public safety market -- CommandCentral Citizen Input -- which is designed to help 9-1-1 call takers to better engage with citizens in their time of need. Citizen Input is a...

By David Buchanan, Executive Director of Public Safety Advocacy, FirstNet Authority
Last year saw the release of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) Roadmap, the launch of network investment planning, and significant buildout of the network. It also saw a renewed commitment from our FirstNet Authority team of expert public safety advisors to engage with public safety and improve, expand, and bring innovation to FirstNet.
Through targeted engagements, our team has been working to better understand public safety’s technical and operational broadband needs and how FirstNet is impacting public safety operations today. Since January, our team has taken part in more than 900 in-person and virtual engagements, meeting with nearly 21,000 public safety stakeholders from across the country. Whether engaging in person or virtually, we have received recommendations and ideas to positively influence the FirstNet network’s path forward. READ MORE

The Federal Communications Commission has voted along party lines to expand the use of the 4.9 GHz band, over objections from public safety users. The 4.9 GHz spectrum, which consists of 50 megahertz (4.940-4.990 GHz), was designated for exclusive use by public safety...

 Download Original Paper

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Emergency Medical Services (EMS) regularly respond to lift assist calls. Previous studies have shown lift assist calls present a significant risk of morbidity and mortality. This group of callers is also likely to make repeated calls to 911 for EMS assistance. The ability to foresee which of these patients may need to call 911 again within 24 hours could help decrease the risk posed to patients in these situations.
Objectives: To 1) describe calls originating as lift assist calls with repeat calls within 24 hours, 2) explore the relationships for predictive ability of repeat 911 calls for the following: EMS scene time, patient initial and final vital signs, patient age, and gender.
Methods: This was a retrospective descriptive study using de-identified data from three emergency dispatch and emergency medical services (EMS) agencies, collected from January 1, 2017 through July 31, 2018. R statistical software (R, version 3.5.2) was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics describe lift assist and repeat calls. Fisher’s exact and Wilcox rank sum test explored the relationship of possible predictor variables of repeat vs. non-repeat calls.
Results: Of all calls for “fall” (n = 15,666), a total of 6,701 were identified as lift assists. A total of 256 (3.82%) of the lift assist calls were identified as repeats. Gender was similarly represented in repeat calls (63.8% female) and non-repeat calls (61.0% female). Overall patient-caller’s median age was 77 (Q1, Q3: 64, 85). Repeat callers were slightly older than non-repeat callers (77 years and 73 years, respectively; p

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is asking the public to help it find new ways to de-identify public safety datasets so researchers and policy makers can glean insights while protecting individual privacy. Large public safety datasets containing...

TRIAL BY FIRE: When the coronavirus pandemic arrived, medical professionals scrambled to set up outdoor testing centers, telemedicine links and data hubs to track how the disease spread. For many communities, including in remote and underserved parts of the...