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Full disclosure: I work with an x-ray generator company interested in designing a product for use in rapid response units. That makes me 1) totally ignorant of your world, and 2) biased. That said, I'm interested to know from the perspective of those in the field if having access to portable x-ray equipment in the ambulance is needed and if so, whether it should be battery operated or if it could be plugged in to an outlet.

I'm helping a chemical instrument maker who is developing a portable HPLC* system, and I have questions for the EMS community, particularly the rare birds with lab chemistry experience. We are prototyping a very small HPLC instrument. No crazy glass bottles and little tubes, it is all self-contained and quite rugged. We hope the consumables and method of use will be as trouble-free as pretty much any of your life-support gear on the truck, like defibrillator, vent/airway, vascular, etc. A probe will simply be dipped into the sample and then screwed by hand into the device, and a typical elution should run between 1 and 5 minutes, depending on the procedure. It ought to have no trouble running as a telemedical device. And so let's assume for argument that the technical hurdles are all overcome. We're not so concerned about whether the tool will have applications, only whether it will have applications in EMS. It seems to me that the main interest, or at least the sweet spot, will be for (a) life-threatening circumstances that (b) can't really wait for transport, and for which (c) multiple possible medical responses exist, at least one of which could exacerbate the patient's condition if misdiagnosed. And so, some springboard questions; feel free to digress: We know about glucometry. Are there any other existing tests (I assume chiefly body-fluid tests -- urine, blood, mucosal swab) that EMT's are already routinely or occasionally performing? Are there any routines that could benefit from a better or more reliable method? Has the industry identified the need for certain tests that do not yet exist due to the obviously impossible time involved in the lab test cycle, but that would be very useful in EMS? Obviously, some test results can be interpreted easily by an EMT, while others will require upload and interpretation by medical control. Certain sensitive tests, and borderline or inaccurate results, will really need to be evaluated with great care. Bearing in mind that this is all initial discussion, can anyone think of which tests might fall into the EMT category, which into the MD category, and based on what standard? *For those who don't know, HPLC is high-performance liquid chromatography. It's a longtime tool in analytical chemistry for testing for the existence and quantity of compounds. You can see a simple experiment that shows the basic operation on Youtube. Because of the large, costly equipment and the difficulty of operating and maintaining it, HPLC has been limited to big labs.

Hello everyone, I am a member of a student team of engineers designing an automatic, portable CPR machine. This device could be positioned in public areas (similar to AEDs) and could be attached to patients, freeing medical personell to simultaneously move patients or tend other injuries. We really need to prioritize design characteristics (portability, adjustability, etc.), but without field medical experience, we're a bit in the dark! Would you be able to give us a hand by ranking the following CPR machine characteristics (in terms of importance) on a scale of 1-10? Thank you so much! If you have any other thoughts, we'd love to hear those as well! Form/Enclosure: Size - Weight - Appearance - Few components - Comfort (for patient and operator) - Adjustability to different body types - Operation: How fast it can by moved/applied - Simplicity of use - Ability to move patient while in use - Ability to monitor patient condition - Ability to automatically adjust to patient status - User Interface: Communication of instructions - Ability to manually adjust rate/force of chest compression, etc. - Ability to interface with ambulances, other medical equipment - Other: Weather resistance - Theft deterrence - Low maintenance required - Battery life -