Driving innovation in urgent and unscheduled care in the North West of England

How our smart ambulance use case will benefit patients

Our goal is to provide more personalised care, allowing patients in the ambulance to control their environment. For example, ‘Digital hand-holding' will enable friends and family to remotely support patients during their ambulance journey. 

As part of the programme, we’re helping specific groups such as neurodivergent and cognitively impaired patients, where we’re exploring ways to reduce the stress often associated with ambulance journeys. 

From a clinical perspective, our project is enabling more point-of-care testing, diagnostics, decision support, and remote triage in the ambulance. This will help transport patients to the most appropriate destination and avoid unnecessary conveyance to the hospital. 

How our smart ambulance and ambulance stations benefit emergency workers

We’re digging deep into emergency crews’ working needs, ensuring solutions fit the problem rather than trying to shoe-horn technology into places where it doesn’t deliver real-world benefits.

For paramedics, we must consider how to support crews to work safely and efficiently. Keyless ignition could, for example, monitor time spent driving and flag when a paramedic is close to their limit for driving hours on a shift. 

Furthermore, we want to help focus crew time on supporting patients and each other – using real-time data and asset tracking to optimise current checks on vehicles and equipment.

Unlocking future ambulance technology to benefit everyone

Smart ambulances and ambulance stations support the needs of emergency workers in a pressured environment, which in turn improves patient experience and healthcare outcomes.

Working with ambulance Trusts, we’re trialling new technologies and clinical processes, collaborating closely with industry and academia to set a new standard for ambulance services in the UK.