Observational studyJournal of medical Internet research2019
Utilization, Safety, and Technical Performance of a Telemedicine System for Prehospital Emergency Care: Observational Study.
Observational study in Journal of medical Internet research, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- How safe is prehospital care? A systematic review.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2021Pooled it
- Measurement and monitoring patient safety in prehospital care: a systematic review.International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care · 2021Pooled it
- Telemedical support for prehospital emergency medical service in severe emergencies: an open-label randomised non-inferiority clinical trial.Critical care (London, England) · 2023Trial
- Artificial Intelligence in Prehospital Tele-Emergency Medicine: A Survey of Acceptance and Attitudes.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Pediatric pre-hospital emergencies in a rural region in northern Germany: frequency, urgency, patterns of utilization, and comparison with adult cases.BMC emergency medicine · 2026Observational
- Effectiveness of an Online Body Camera System for Medical Oversight in Prehospital Emergency Care: An 11-Year Retrospective Cohort Study.Archives of academic emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Evaluation of the performance of telephone triage service.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Influence of professional background on assessment of simulated cardiopulmonary resuscitation videos in an observational study.Scientific reports · 2025Observational
- Integrating Telemedical Supervision, Responder Apps, and Data-Driven Triage: The RuralRescue Model of Personalized Emergency Care.Journal of personalized medicine · 2025Article
- Telemedicine for prehospital respiratory emergencies in a retrospective quality analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Enhancing prehospital decision-making: exploring user needs and design considerations for clinical decision support systems.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2025Article
- Comparison of the diagnostic concordance of tele-EMS and EMS physicians in the emergency medical service-a subanalysis of the TEMS-trial.Frontiers in digital health · 2025Article
- Long-term effects of a prehospital telemedicine system on structural and process quality indicators of an emergency medical service.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- [Update tele-emergency medicine : Status quo and perspectives].Die Anaesthesiologie · 2023Review
- Contribution of Live Video to Physicians' Remote Assessment of Suspected COVID-19 Patients in an Emergency Medical Communication Centre: A Retrospective Study and Web-Based Survey.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Mobile Integrated Health Interventions for Older Adults: A Systematic Review.Innovation in aging · 2023Review
- Digital transition in rural emergency medicine: Impact of job satisfaction and workload on communication and technology acceptance.PloS one · 2023Article
- Introduction of Telemedicine in a Prehospital Emergency Care Setting: A Pilot Study.International journal of telemedicine and applications · 2023Article
- [Is a tele-emergency physician system a sensible addition in rural German regions?-An analysis from a medical and economic perspective].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2022Article
- Emergency Telemedicine Mobile Ultrasounds Using a 5G-Enabled Application: Development and Usability Study.JMIR formative research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAs a consequence of increasing emergency medical service (EMS) missions requiring an EMS physician on site, we had implemented a unique prehospital telemedical emergency service as a new structural component to the conventional physician-based EMS in Germany.
objectiveWe sought to assess the utilization, safety, and technical performance of this telemedical emergency service.
methodsWe conducted a retrospective analysis of all primary emergency missions with telemedical consultation of an EMS physician in the City of Aachen (250,000 inhabitants) during the first 3 operational years of our tele-EMS system. Main outcome measures were the number of teleconsultations, number of complications, and number of transmission malfunctions during teleconsultations.
resultsThe data of 6265 patients were analyzed. The number of teleconsultations increased during the run-in period of four quarters toward full routine operation from 152 to 420 missions per quarter. When fully operational, around the clock, and providing teleconsultations to 11 mobile ambulances, the number of teleconsultations further increased by 25.9 per quarter (95% CI 9.1-42.6; P=.009). Only 6 of 6265 patients (0.10%; 95% CI 0.04%-0.21%) experienced adverse events, all of them not inherent in the system of teleconsultations. Technical malfunctions of single transmission components occurred from as low as 0.3% (95% CI 0.2%-0.5%) during two-way voice communications to as high as 1.9% (95% CI 1.6%-2.3%) during real-time vital data transmissions. Complete system failures occurred in only 0.3% (95% CI 0.2%-0.6%) of all teleconsultations.
conclusionsThe Aachen prehospital EMS is a frequently used, safe, and technically reliable system to provide medical care for emergency patients without an EMS physician physically present. Noninferiority of the tele-EMS physician compared with an on-site EMS physician needs to be demonstrated in a randomized trial.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.