FCC Committee Issues EMS Report

An FCC committee created by the Congress has issued an 80-page report with recommendations on improving the nation’s emergency medical communications systems, including voice, data and broadband. The Joint Advisory Committee on Communications Capabilities of Emergency Medical and Public Health Care Facilities (JAC) found that EMS agencies are generally using old technology that’s no inter-connected, and which can’t provide the necessary critical information before, during and after the incident to help the patient. The committee recognized that IP-based communications is the wave of the future, and outlined how IP might specifically help EMS communications. All the committee’s recommendations are upper-level, policy-based, rather than nitty-gritty. Download (pdf) the entire report here.