Baton Rouge Emergency Medical Services plans to expand its telemedicine program to include more features and more hospitals.The telemedicine program, which began in March 2009, brings new technology to ambulances, allowing paramedics to communicate patients’ diagnostic information to doctors en route to medical centers.”It allows communication in real time with data in the ambulances to the hospitals,” said John Carpenter, assistant chief administrative officer to the mayor-president. “A doctor in the ER can get instant diagnostic information.”The technology is typically used with heart attack patients. Doctors can receive patients’ electrocardiogram, or EKG, strips before they arrive at the hospital, said Chad Guillot, assistant administrator of East Baton Rouge Parish EMS.The EKG strips are sent using a WiFi network owned by the city or by cellular cards, which allows doctors to see the actual results. Before this, the results could be read to doctors over the radio, but seeing the actual EKG is a big improvement, Guillot said.The doctors receive a “12-lead” EKG, which uses more electrodes and provides a more thorough view of the heart than a standard 3-lead EKG. “We attach all these different leads to the arms, legs and chest and get more diagnostics than just a regular 3-lead EKG,” Guillot said.He said there have been some success stories of the technology helping patients, but results are sporadic because of the limited scope of the initial pilot.Only Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center could receive EKGs when the program began last March. But the program is expanding, and Guillot said Baton Rouge General should be prepared to receive EKGs within a month.Plans are in place to equip all other area hospitals with the EKG transmission technology soon, and the next step is outfitting the ambulances and hospitals with live video capabilities, Guillot said. Presently, only Our Lady of the Lake can receive video.More grant funding is pending to continue expanding the program, Guillot said. The program has received about $120,000 in grants so far, he said. Baton Rouge was the second city to test this technology after Tucson, Ariz. Other cities, like Savannah, Ga., have contacted Baton Rouge for advice on how to start up their own telemedicine programs, he said.Guillot said the technology is always improving, but it will take a while for it to reach its full potential.”As technology gets better, the program will get better,” he said. “It’s going to take several years to get the system where we have connectivity across WiFi everywhere we go, but we will always have those low spots and dead spots we have to go though.”—-Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]