Aachen Institute for Rescue Medicine & Civil Security
The ARS is a joint institution of the City of Aachen and the University Hospital RWTH Aachen. The aim of the institute is to bundle the necessary innovative further development of pre-hospital emergency care and medical emergency response within the framework of strategic, user-oriented and scientific cooperation.
The basis for the cooperation is the high level of technical and administrative expertise of both institutions: As a super-maximum care hospital, the RWTH Aachen University Hospital plays a central role in medical care in the Aachen region and carries out extensive activities in research, teaching and patient care. Pre-hospital care in the rescue and emergency doctor service, organized by the professional fire department of the city of Aachen, as well as the area of inter-hospital transport also stand for a high standard of quality. With the tele-emergency doctor system, a research idea has already been sustainably transferred to standard care.
Tele-emergency doctor
Based on the two successfully completed Aachen research projects "Med-on-@ix" (2007 - 2010) and "TemRas" (Telemedical Rescue Assistance System, 2010 - 2013), the tele-emergency doctor service was implemented in 2014 by resolution of the Aachen City Council on 19.03.2014 as Europe's first comprehensive telemedical rescue assistance system in pre-hospital care. This offers added value for patients in particular through the faster provision of medical expertise by the so-called tele-emergency doctor.
The "Telenotarzt" system enables an immediate, safe and reliable teleconsultation of an emergency doctor in the rescue operation. The live transmission of vital parameters, voice and images from the scene allows the tele-emergency doctor to get an exact picture of the patient's condition in order to support the emergency services on site with medical advice, help with diagnosis and the legally compliant delegation of therapeutic measures.
In this way, the physician-free interval until the arrival of a "conventional" emergency physician can be bridged and the available emergency physician capacities can be used in a targeted manner.
All legal procedures and processes were secured in the form of expert opinions as part of the previous research projects; all procedures and processes relating to data storage and data security were also agreed with the data protection officer of the City of Aachen.
The tele-emergency doctor service is anchored in the rescue service requirement plan of the city of Aachen and is therefore part of the public welfare provision in addition to the standard nationwide ground-based emergency doctor service.
The tele-emergency doctor's workstation is located at Fire and Rescue Station 1 at Stolberger Str. 155, attached to the Aachen control center.