Advanced communication infrastructure for pre-hospital EMS care.

The traditional communication infrastructure of the pre-hospital Emergency Medical System (EMS) is limited to voice communication using radio or cell phone technologies. With the emergence of 3rd Generation wireless networks (3G) and enhanced mobile devices capable of data communication (e.g., mobile tablets, PDAs with cell phones, or cell phones with PDA capabilities), the voice communication can be enhanced with interactive data messaging and perhaps even with interactive video communication. However, video requires substantially more bandwidth which 4th Generation (4G) systems are promising. However, their availability is limited. We present an infrastructure that allows dynamic selection of the best data transport mode in the pre-hospital EMS environment.