Data, and How It Can Support You

You don’t have to use ZOLL and ZOLL Data products to learn something at the company’s annual Summit data-management conference. Obviously there’s benefit if you do; speakers there guide attendees through the company’s latest devices and capabilities, sharing advances and best practices. But even if you’re just interested in emerging EMS concepts like mobile integrated healthcare/community paramedicine and the HL7 data standard, there’s plenty to whet your intellect and take home to work on. Summit 2014, with a theme of “Advancing Care Through Data,” was held May 13–16 in Denver and boasted more than 120 sessions across eight tracks. This article summarizes some of that content, with a focus on data technology that can benefit systems of all stripes. Next year’s event will be held May 12–15. For more, see https://connect.zolldata.com/summit-registration. 

It’s a lot less true than it once was that EMS lacks data. We now add more than 20 million events a year to the National EMS Information System (NEMSIS), building a statistical base that has much to tell us about our patients and care. The challenge now lies in converting that data into meaningful information systems and their providers can access, digest and build on. 

That’s why it’s good news that adoption of the NEMSIS version 3 data set proceeds so swiftly. By New Year’s, 20 states are expected to transition to that latest incarnation. 

This version offers some major advances over its predecessor. Prominent among them are data elements associated with performance measures in key areas—cardiac arrest, STEMI, stroke, trauma, airway, pediatrics—where EMS can make a difference. 

“Elements that are important for measuring performance and improving care in those areas are highlighted in the dictionary,” explains ZOLL medical director Greg Mears, MD, who spoke on version 3 and the future of EMS data at Summit 2014. “By doing that we hope that more local agencies and even states will adopt those data elements, so they can better evaluate the care and service they provide.” Using these elements will create opportunities for benchmarking and identifying best practices, encouraging EMS agencies to optimize their care and outcomes. 

Data completeness and ease of use were also prime considerations in version 3. Error-checking at the time the record’s completed makes its content more valid and useful, and the new version promotes automated data exchange. 

“Historically, with a lot of software, we’ve had to manually create files and then send the data to the state,” says Mears. “Even at the state level, some had to manually create files to send on to the national database. Part of the requirements for version 3 is that there’s an automated way for that data to move, and it doesn’t require manual manipulation to happen.” 

That brings us to HL7, the international standard for data exchange in the healthcare world. For EMS to communicate optimally with hospitals and others in our increasingly integrated efforts, that’s the language we’ll need to speak. NEMSIS’ version 3 does: It’s aligned its data definitions for HL7 compatibility. 

Vendors will ultimately have to toe that line as well, and ZOLL is among those transitioning; in March the company announced the successful exchange of clinical and administrative data between EMS and a hospital EMR system using HL7. Colorado’s Poudre Valley Hospital EMS transmitted patient health record data from its RescueNet ePCR to the University of Colorado Health’s electronic medical records system. 

When capabilities like that are commonplace, the quantity, accuracy and usability of EMS data will soar. We’ll help amass more data of better quality that in turn can be more readily fed back to prehospital systems for evaluation and improvement. 

That two-way flow is the ultimate goal: Data will come back to EMS as well as flowing from it, be seamlessly harnessed and then used to refine care. 

“The concept we’re pushing is one of data and technology really becoming part of the healthcare team,” says Mears. “It used to be we just had a documentation system, or a device you’d look at to get vital signs or collect data on a patient. Now we’re using devices and data systems to help the EMS professional apply that information in the care they provide. 

“We’re moving toward clinical decision support, where we can actually help guide our providers as they provide care, give them reminders on tasks and things specific to what they’re treating, and help make sure the patient gets the best care possible. It will be more interactive, more real-time, and truly a part of healthcare delivery.”