By Ken Bednasz, VP Application Engineering at Telit, Americas.
SOURCE: IoTforall.com
DATE: February 18, 2019
The implementation of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet)—the first nationwide high-speed broadband network for America’s first responders—has opened up a whole new range of opportunities for technology to assist in their mission-critical work. FirstNet is built on an LTE network. It’s the flexibility, coverage and bandwidth of LTE and the reliability and resilience built into FirstNet that are catalyzing the emergence of applications, helping to enable new ways of working for the public safety community. FirstNet is built with AT&T in public-private partnership with the First Responder Network Authority.
A key example of the power and importance of FirstNet is the increasing use of real-time surveillance and data gathering by drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The benefits of drones are slowly being realized, and they’re being deployed in a growing number of agencies to enhance productivity and to increase safety and security. 
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By Kevin O’Connor
Embracing FirstNet
It has been nearly eight years since the fire service secured bandwidth 14 (D-Block) and the creation of FirstNet through aggressive lobbying and advocacy. At times, it has been a tumultuous and seemingly never-ending journey in our quest for a dedicated, interoperable public safety communications network. 
AT&T was the only major telecom company to bid. Many attempted to entice other companies to bid for the business in order to spark competition and innovation and drive down costs, but no other major carrier stepped forward, and AT&T was awarded the business. AT&T now has a 25-year contract to build out and manage the system for FirstNet, and they are doing so.
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By Edward Parkinson, Acting CEO, First Responder Network Authority
Last week, I joined the Western Fire Chiefs Association and public safety officials for a site visit to the burn area of the Camp Fire in northern California. This trip was an opportunity for the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) to learn about the public safety response to the fires that devastated Paradise, California—a town of 27,000 residents in the foothills East of Chico—directly from those fire chiefs and other first responders who were on the ground during the wildfire.
Not only did seeing the Camp Fire site leave a lasting and tremendous impression on me, it also helped provide perspective on the enormity of the more than 153,000 acres of destruction and devastation to impact Butte County last November. Everything in view was affected by the fire.
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By Charles Murph, First Responder Network Authority Senior Public Safety Advisor
With FirstNet available throughout the United States, emergency managers have greater access to real-time information than ever before. Charles Murph says that now is the time to think about how to manage the ever-larger volumes of data that will ensue.
The age of FirstNet stands to deliver situational awareness and data for Emergency Operation Centers (EOCs), whether for emergency managers in rural or metro areas in the US. When police needed to search a 300-acre wooded property in rural Alabama, they used a mix of traditional police work and cutting-edge technology to try to find evidence that could provide a long-sought break in a missing persons case.
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By Brent Williams, Senior EMS Advisor
FirstNet is making its mark across the country and as I meet with emergency medical services professionals, I’m pleased to hear their feedback on the initial benefits of having their own dedicated network. With more than 5,250 public safety agencies currently subscribed to FirstNet, we are learning more each day from first responders about how the network is enhancing emergency communications.
As guest host of the FirstNet Authority’s Public Safety First podcast, I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Paul Zeeb, Medical Director for the Metropolitan Emergency Communications Consortium in Central Ohio, and Plain Township (OH) Assistant Fire Chief Jack Rupp. Both underscored that during emergency response, the ability to share data quickly during critical and routine incidents is imperative to ensuring patients receive the best quality care available.  
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By TJ Kennedy, Co-Founder Public Safety Network
It’s been a tremendously exciting year for the development and implementation of new technologies leveraging public safety broadband capabilities.  In the course of our travels this year, we have seen tremendous progress in the use of broadband capabilities for mission critical communications across the globe, including in Australia, Canada, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom (UK), and of course, the United States (US).  We have seen increased issuance of RFI and RFPs, and greater focus than ever on deployment of new critical communications LTE networks.
The progress in the US has been nothing less than astounding.  I could not be prouder of the implementation and operational network in place with the FirstNet.gov team and the AT&T/FirstNet team (FirstNet.com).
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By Edward Parkinson, Acting CEO
The First Responder Network Authority team is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of former Board member Ed Reynolds on New Year’s Day.  Ed was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame just a few months ago after an accomplished career in wireless technology spanning several decades.
Ed had the distinction of being a founding member of the FirstNet Board, serving during our startup days through the launch of the Network in early 2018.  He was a dedicated and valuable member of the Board’s Technology and Finance committees during that time.  
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Margaret Mims  
 Fresno County Sheriff
“When I first heard about FirstNet, I thought, ‘here’s our opportunity to fix that problem.’” – Margaret Mims, Fresno County Sheriff
Fresno County has urban areas, a valley floor and high, rugged mountains. We have sworn personnel, a mounted posse, four-wheel drive, air squadron, mountaineer and canine volunteers.
We need to be able to communicate with them when they’re in remote locations. They need to be able to talk to each other. And we need to be able to communicate with other agencies involved. So, operability is critical when it comes to our search and rescue calls.
That’s been a common theme in my nearly four decades in law enforcement when it comes to the after-action reports of major incidents. Almost every time, communication among agencies has been an issue.
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Abstract

Introduction: Identification of persons based on verbal descriptions is one of the key skills of police work. Gathering as much description information as possible immediately following the event—for example, at the point of emergency police dispatch—could substantially improve the accuracy of suspect descriptions, the ability to locate missing persons quickly, and other key outcomes of effective police work.
Objective: The primary objective of this study was to determine what amount and type of persons description information is collected by Emergency Police Dispatchers (EPDs), both overall and by Chief Complaint Protocol.
Methods: This is a retrospective, descriptive study of the Police Priority Dispatch System (PPDS) data from five emergency communication centers in the United States of America, collected between September 2014 and May 2017.
Results: During the study period, a total of 117,160 (58.1%) calls had at least one item from the Description Essentials (DE) Tool: Person’s Description recorded. The Chief Complaint Protocols that had the highest frequency of person DE collected were Missing/Runaway/Found Person (99.0%), Suicidal Person/Attempted Suicide (97.1%), and Domestic Disturbance/Violence (90.0%). The most commonly recorded person DE elements were the four required measures: gender, race, age, and clothing. Among non-required DE elements, the most common was name (38.7%), and the least common were demeanor and complexion (1.3% each). By far the most common type of person described was “suspect” (78.4% of cases).
Conclusions: Overall, trained and certified EPDs using the PPDS are effective at collecting information about persons and entering it correctly. Different types of events require somewhat different approaches to description gathering. EPDs appear to discriminate among these different event types while (mostly) making sure to collect required information. Additionaldefinitions, small changes to when and how the ProQA DE Tool appears, and possible removal of two seldom-used descriptors have been recommended based on these findings.

Topics:Description Essentials|Emergency Police Dispatch (EPD)|eyewitness|Person Descriptions|Police Priority Dispatch System (PPDS)|suspect/subject

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Abstract

Introduction: The Emergency Medical Dispatcher’s (EMD’s) selection of the most appropriate Chief Complaint Protocol is one of the most important elements in emergency dispatching. Choosing the correct Chief Complaint ensures that the correct information is gathered, the correct instructions and help provided, and the right resources sent. The selection of the MPDS Sick Person Protocol is often one of the most difficult for EMDs.
Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to compare the EMD’s selection of the Sick Person Protocol with on-scene responders’ findings when patient contact is made. The secondary objective is to compare specific details gathered on the Sick Person Protocol with on-scene responders’ findings.
Methods: This is a retrospective study using data from a single, urban, highperformance emergency medical services (EMS) system in central Virginia, USA.
Results: Overall, 44,163 ProQA cases were collected for the study period, of which 6,732 (15.2%) were handled on the Sick Person Protocol. The strong majority (62.1%) of calls fell into the ALPHA Priority Level. For most of the cases, the Primary Impression type was “pain,” a “GI/GU” (gastrointestinal or genitourinary) problem, or “weakness.” However, three Key Question answers predicted another Primary Impression: “neuro,” or neurological complaint.
Conclusions: These findings indicate that the EMDs at this agency are appropriately selecting the Sick Person Protocol and that when used correctly (by an ACE-accredited agency), the Sick Person Protocol correctly triages the few higher-acuity conditions, such as altered level of consciousness, into higher Priority Levels.

Topics:EMD|ePCR|MPDS|ProQA|Protocol 26|sick person protocol

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Abstract

Introduction: In emergency dispatching, pre-alerts are used to send responders to calls prior to getting a final dispatch code. Some studies have showed that pre-alerts can effectively reduce dispatch time for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, potentially improving overall patient outcome. However, there is also a potential risk in running lights-and-siren on non-fully triaged calls. Although pre-alerts have been used for several years, no research studies have demonstrated its benefit, in general.
Objectives: The goal of this study was to determine the implications of pre-alerts for medical emergency calls, with regard to dispatch priorities, response units, and call cancellation and call downgrading.
Methods: This retrospective, descriptive study analyzed de-identified dispatch and EMS data from two emergency  communications centers in the USA: Johnson County Emergency Communications Center (ECC), Kansas, and Guilford County Emergency Services, North Carolina.
Results: A total of 139,815 calls were included in the study, of which 73,062 (52.3%) were downgraded, and 7,189 (5.1%) were cancelled. This indicates a waste of valuable resources and an implied increase in cost and risk. Additionally, in 20.0% of the calls, at least one response unit was cancelled, while only 1.12% were transported with high priority (lights-and-siren). A median elapsed time (-14 sec) from pre-alert to ProQA launch indicates that calls sat in the queue for median time of 14 seconds before first units were assigned.
Conclusions: The study found a significant number of cancelled units and downgraded calls. In addition, the very small percentage of calls where patients were transported with high priority indicates unnecessary pre-alerts for non-critical patients. Study findings demonstrated that calls spent a substantial amount of time in queue, and units were sent without safety/final coding information. To better establish the positive and negative impacts of pre-alerting, a controlled study

Topics:emergency medical dispatch|lights and siren|Medical Emergency Calls|Pre-alert

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Abstract

Introduction: Extrication activities at the scene of motor vehicle accidents (MVA) result in extended scene times and increase morbidity and mortality. Identifying the need for extrication-capable resources during the 911 call-taking process, and dispatching them without delay, is crucial to delivering the required response and patient care. Determining the need for extrication using the Traffic/Transport Incidents Protocol in the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS®) (version 13.0 ©2000-2015, Priority Dispatch, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA) currently relies on the 911 caller’s answer to a single key question in the protocol: “Is anyone pinned (trapped)?”
Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate how accurate current 911 practices are in recognizing pins and entrapments resulting from MVAs. Additionally, the study sought to identify whether a Head-On (HO) MVA or an MVA with Semi-TractorTrailer (Semi) involvement should warrant the immediate assignment of specialized extrication resources.
Methods: This was a retrospective descriptive study of all MVA cases in three Kansas counties (Butler, Sedgwick, and Johnson), encountered from January 1, 2016, through June 30, 2017. 911 calltakers in the study population utilize the MPDS Protocols to triage MVA calls. Traffic accident data was extracted from ProQA and matched with CAD records.
Results: A total of 985 calls were analyzed, of which 218 (22.1%) required extrication and 267 (27.1%) involved Semi/HO—as documented by responders. Of the 218 cases that required extrication, 123 (56.4%) were reported pinned at dispatch and 21 (9.6%) involved Semi/head-on—15 of which were already captured by the pinned Key Question. Of the 267 cases that involved a Semi/HO, 21 (7.9%) required extrication. Of the cases that were initially reported pinned at dispatch, 123 (32.3%) required extrication by responders; and of the cases initially reported not pinned at dispatch, 59 (11.4%) required extrication by responders.
Conclusions: A “yes” answer to the protocol key question “Is anyone pinned (trapped)?” is a better predictor of extrication by responders for MVAs than is the presence of Semi/head-on involvement. Further research should examine whether High Mechanism and Major Incident determinant suffixes will capture additional extrication incidents.

Topics:Extrication|Head-on|Mechanism of Injury|Motor vehicle accidents|MVA|SEMI|Traffic accidents

The smart city concept offers the possibility of more effective fire detection, notification and extinguishment systems. 
By Charles Werner
SOURCE: Firehouse.com
DATE: December 1, 2018
The concept of smart cities has become a worldwide discussion and trend. This is a direct result of broadband connectivity and the Internet of Things (IoTs). The IoTs refers to all the devices that can be connected via the internet or an IP network.

Wikipedia defines a smart city as, “An urban area that uses different types of electronic data collection sensors to supply information that is used to manage assets and resources efficiently. This includes data collected from citizens, devices and assets that is processed and analyzed to monitor and manage building systems, traffic and transportation systems, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, law enforcement, information systems, schools, libraries, hospitals, and other community services.”
IoT Today (iot-today.com) identified the top 5 smart cities in the world as Singapore, London, Barcelona, San Francisco and Oslo based on their use of broadband connectivity and integration of various data systems for the purpose of analyzing and increasing operational efficiencies. The scope of the smart city concept will impact city employees, buildings/infrastructure, technology, citizen engagement and community expectations.
Fire service impact ……
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