Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association
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With the development of information technology, real-time telemetry has been invented for checking patients' physiologic parameters during their transport, via an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system. We developed a Real-Time Telemetry System (RTS), which sends physiologic parameters including electrocardiogram (ECG), vital signs, and pulse asymmetry in real-time from the ambulance to a hospital through the Emergency Medical Information Center, a kind of central control unit. Therefore, we asked whether the RTS monitoring affects the use of medical direction in EMS system. ⋯ The results showed that intermediate medical direction in the cases using the RTS was conducted more than in the conventional method-ambulance to the hospital. These results suggest that the RTS monitoring enhances the quality in developing EMS system.