The Bottom-line is Survivability: Enhancing Military Medicine with Automatic Identification of Casualties

IBM Global Business Services designed and implemented the communication solution, enabling EMS workers to quickly identify and take medical information in the field and attach an RFID-equipped wristband to the patient, which can then be wirelessly transmitted to authorized parties in the STARRS network. The RFID-based solution allows fire and police commanders to better allocate resources to where they are needed in responding to a critical incident, and enabling hospitals to better anticipate their patient loads and coordinate care and staffing needs in a mass casualty event. Another benefit is to the families of those who might be impacted in such a natural disaster or terrorist attack, as they will be able to more quickly learn of the medical condition and location of their loved ones. STARRS deputy director Nick Gragnani recently commented: “In any emergency situation where human lives are at stake, seconds count. Better medical information provided more quickly means better patient care and more lives saved.”

In the end, the success stories of the TagMedCS system in the military realm and STARRS in the civilian setting make a strong case for the wider use of RFID in tracking individuals – be they patients, casualties, refugees, or survivors – in any emergent, fast-moving situation where coordination between various agencies and entities is critical. A recent report from consulting firm Frost & Sullivan deemed hospitals the most attractive market for RFID, but cautioned that RFID-based solutions are often seen as cost prohibitive versus barcode-based applications.

Analysis: Technology Saving Lives

However, with an increasing emphasis on homeland security and inter-agency coordination, developments such as these could go a long way to providing increased value from RFID-based solutions and make an attractive business case for implementing such tracking systems – even within a hospital’s “four-walls” – so that individual health-care entities can be a vital link in bettering emergency response capabilities across an entire area. Such developments could make health-care an especially attractive area for RFID hardware, integrators and solutions providers, while improving the health and welfare of both military and civilian personnel in the process.

In doing so, some scary situations can be made better through the innovative use of RFID. But even more importantly, survival rates and treatment for those injured can be improved even more. In the US military today, the wounded speak of their “Alive Day” – the day on which they were injured – and survived. With better identification and coordination, more injured servicemen and women – and civilians – can look back on what may have been the worst day of their lives as a milestone from which they can indeed recover.

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David C. Wyld (dwyld@selu.edu) is the Robert Maurin Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, and executive educator. His blog, Wyld About Business, can be viewed at http://wyld-business.blogspot.com/.