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Stacking up digital advances to save lives
View(s):- ‘Suwa Seriya’ set to take digital transformation to new heights with ‘Connected Ambulances’ and ‘fall detection devices’
By Kumudini Hettiarachchi
Looking at the far horizon, this ‘Pre-hospital Care Emergency Medical Service’ (EMS) is set on stacking more and more on its futuristic, digital base.
The future: Connected Ambulances with telemetry devices for transmission of real-time data
It is a lazy Sunday and the Sunday Times is at the ‘hub’ of the tightly-run, complex digital operation that is the Emergency Command & Control Centre at Rajagiriya.
If there is any doubt whether digital operations work, this is a shining example of how they do for the benefit of patients scattered across the country.
All about digital transformation and what lies ahead flow forth from Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sohan de Silva who also aptly wears the ‘Head of Information Technology (IT)’ hat.
Digitization which improves efficiency, consistency and quality of services is a process of converting information from the normal form into a digital (computerized) format, with data represented as ‘bits’ or ‘bytes’.
“We have achieved good results by joining in wedlock our passion to save lives and our knowledge of technologies,” smiles this first CEO of the Suwa Seriya Foundation, clad in his signature green 1990 uniform which he calls their brand.
He deals with what lies ahead before showcasing what is already in place. The roll-outs in progress include the arming of ambulance staff with tablets and electronic patient care reports (ePCRs) and installing ETA (estimated time of arrival) screens at major hospitals so that they can be prepared for the emergencies being ferried in.
The future plans, meanwhile, include dramatic changes in the right direction such as ‘Connected Ambulances’.
Sohan explains that under this state-of-the-art concept, these 5G Connected Ambulances would have the latest medical equipment and patient monitoring applications, with the emergency medical technicians (EMTs) donning telemetry devices so that the doctor at the call centre gets all the information about the patient including from monitoring apparatuses (blood pressure etc.) in real-time.
Taking Sri Lanka’s reality not only of a rapidly ageing population but the high rate of motorcycle accidents into account, Suwa Seriya is also conducting a pilot project on the introduction of fall detection technology. Worn by the vulnerable as a wrist device, it would alert emergency response services and family whenever an elderly person or a motorcyclist has a fall, even if that person is unable to make contact.
The hub of Suwa Seriya at Rajagiriya
While they would also try out artificial intelligence (AI) for enhanced service delivery, a long-term goal is to cut the risk of network failure during a catastrophe by introducing satellite phones as back-up on every ambulance.
The digital ship Sohan manages with just 30 administrative staff at Rajagiriya and operational teams deployed across the country in ambulances based at police stations.
Having taken up this post in 2018, he says their five-year Digital Strategy had to face some delays and also be fine-tuned after incidents such as the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb blasts, the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 financial crisis. However, planning and discussions with donors never stopped.
These covered a gamut of activity – from the simple stuff such as launching the 1990.lk domain, the staff@1990.lk emails, unlike personal email accounts which may not be secure, to complex algorithms to optimize operations and crisis-handling.
Care and attention withina Suwa Seriya ambulance Pix by M A Pushpa Kumara
Digitization has aided Suwa Seriya to become the fastest ambulance to get to a person in need with the aid of vehicles being fitted with the Global Positioning System (GPS), while streamlining follow-up and hospital-handover time and setting up a local database of all addresses. Other aspects have been the introduction of algorithms to prevent double dispatching and reduce response time, once a call of health distress is received.
Hands-on Sohan explains that as they respond to such calls as motor accidents, a simultaneous alert is received by a 119 officer manning the police emergency service. Earlier, they had also monitored the health hotlines of 1390 and 247 through APIs (Application Programming Interfaces – mechanisms that enable two software components to communicate, using a set of definitions and protocols).
A wrist device to alert emergency responders of a fall
He ticks off the numerous Apps (mobile applications which are computer programs or software applications designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet or even a watch) that Suwa Seriya uses for the benefit of the public. They include the 1990 app; iSign; iFuel; eVisit; day closer; and navigation app, some of which streamline staff operations and support efficient monitoring.
CEO Sohan de Silva
With a hint of pride, Sohan says that the HRIS (Human Resource Information System) has been internally designed and developed by a local supplier free of charge. This is while, other than servers, switches, cloud email services and call centre hardware, all software has been developed by local providers.
All that is well and good, but what “if” there is a major crisis which affects the command centre at Rajagiriya?
“We are ready,” smiles Sohan, pointing out that they are armed with ‘Disaster Recovery (DR) in the Cloud’ which would help keep the service running with the support of a cloud environment. This is complemented by the administrative staff having a knowledge of the EDM (emergency dispatch management) system.
“In the event of a major communication failure on our SIP Line (multiple fibre voice links to the call centre), our last resort would be copper (standard) telephone lines,” he says, adding that Suwa Seriya is a role model for digital transformation and they would be most willing to share their expertise in this field.
| Evident successes Starting small, with India providing a grant for 88 ambulances in the first phase and 209 more ambulances in the second phase, EMS has moved from strength to strength. Manned by 1,300 staff, it handles 5,000 calls per day, to date 98.9% being answered on the first ring. The statistics are humongous – Suwa Seriya has deftly fielded 6.2 million calls to date. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sohan de Silva explains that even though there have been 5,000 calls per day, the cases have amounted to 1000+ as sometimes there are many calls about the same case. This totals around 1.5 million incidents to date. This continuing marathon, according to him, has been possible due to the very supportive Chairman and Board of Directors, CMO Dr. Srilal de Silva, his strong senior management team, his committed 1,300 staff, service providers and donors, Health Ministry officials, doctors and hospital staff. He says that for him to provide unwavering commitment to Suwa Seriya, he remembers the childhood lessons from his parents and his school, St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa, and the “understanding” of his wife and son who allow him to give a big share of his time to this cause. | |
| Adopt an ambulance ‘Adopt an ambulance’ and make a personal contribution towards saving lives, urges CEO Sohan de Silva, appealing to the private sector to extend a helping hand to this national cause. “We are facing a financial crunch this year. However, we are not ready to make inroads into our commitment towards saving lives. So help us by adopting an ambulance,” he says. |
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