AirRx offers in-flight emergency help for medicos

Health & Leisure
Tuesday, 23 August 2016

AirRx, a smartphone app, has been developed to prepare and help physicians assist fellow travellers experiencing medical emergencies while in flight.
Physicians of all specialties who want to help a sick traveller can use the app to access 23 scenarios of the most-common medical emergencies, with concise treatment algorithms and offline access to information to help evaluate and treat the patient.
 


“If emergency medical care is needed on a flight, a call goes out from the cabin crew to see if a health professional is present and willing to help,” explained dr Raymond Bertino, clinical professor of radiology and surgery at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. “When health professionals respond, they must provide care in an unfamiliar setting with little equipment or assistance, and often have to treat a condition outside their usual scope of practice.”
 
airRx is specifically aimed at the health professional who does not treat acute medical events on a routine basis. It has background information about equipment and medications available, how the cabin crew can help, what the roles of the cabin and flight crews are, how ground medical support is integrated into these events and the medico/legal aspects of volunteering to assist.
 
“Across the world, 150-200 medical events occur every day on airplanes,” added dr Claude Thibeault, medical advisor to the International Air Transport Association, former president of the Aerospace Medical Association and former medical director for Air Canada. “Planes are one of the most-challenging places in which to treat a medical event due to limited equipment and supplies, lack of space and the time lag to reach medical help on the ground.”


AirRx is available for use in ‘airplane’ mode after being downloaded from either the Apple App Store or Android Google Play.

AirRx offers in-flight emergency help for medicos

Health & Leisure
Tuesday, 23 August 2016

AirRx, a smartphone app, has been developed to prepare and help physicians assist fellow travellers experiencing medical emergencies while in flight.
Physicians of all specialties who want to help a sick traveller can use the app to access 23 scenarios of the most-common medical emergencies, with concise treatment algorithms and offline access to information to help evaluate and treat the patient.
 


“If emergency medical care is needed on a flight, a call goes out from the cabin crew to see if a health professional is present and willing to help,” explained dr Raymond Bertino, clinical professor of radiology and surgery at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. “When health professionals respond, they must provide care in an unfamiliar setting with little equipment or assistance, and often have to treat a condition outside their usual scope of practice.”
 
airRx is specifically aimed at the health professional who does not treat acute medical events on a routine basis. It has background information about equipment and medications available, how the cabin crew can help, what the roles of the cabin and flight crews are, how ground medical support is integrated into these events and the medico/legal aspects of volunteering to assist.
 
“Across the world, 150-200 medical events occur every day on airplanes,” added dr Claude Thibeault, medical advisor to the International Air Transport Association, former president of the Aerospace Medical Association and former medical director for Air Canada. “Planes are one of the most-challenging places in which to treat a medical event due to limited equipment and supplies, lack of space and the time lag to reach medical help on the ground.”


AirRx is available for use in ‘airplane’ mode after being downloaded from either the Apple App Store or Android Google Play.