Modern problems of the “golden hour” in the work of emergency services and emergency medical care and the likely way to solve them

Relevance. Effective operation of the evacuation transport and the ambulance team implies fast and high-quality assistance, including fast delivery of medical forces and assets to patients, all necessary treatment for emergency and urgent indications on the spot and also along the evacuation route, and prompt evacuation of patients to hospitals for preventing severe pathogenetic complications.

Intention. To study effectiveness of emergency medical services during medical evacuation both in a megalopolis and in remote settlements; to identify the main problems and shortcomings of the modern medical evacuation system at the prehospital stage; and to justify the need to develop and implement new types of air ambulance for intra-city and inter-point operating conditions to help emergency medical teams.

Methodology. Domestic and foreign publications devoted to the development of air ambulance and medical evacuation have been studied.

Results and Discussion. Based on literature analysis, the main problems of emergency medical services within “the golden hour” are revealed. The analysis was carried out and the low efficiency of the current system of medical evacuation measures for emergency medical indications at the pre-hospital stage, especially in the conditions of a megalopolis, was demonstrated. Both advantages and problems and significant disadvantages in the wide use of the capabilities of modern air ambulance are identified.

Conclusion. In the near future, small aircrafts based on new principles of air transportation will become an alternative to conventional sanitary and medical evacuation transport worldwide. Of particular interest are experimental unmanned aerial vehicles for urban passenger needs developed by foreign and domestic authors. Besides, similar aircrafts are proposed for the needs of disaster medicine. Their implementation will fundamentally increase the efficiency and improve the quality of medical care for the population of cities and villages, regardless of road traffic conditions, both in emergency situations and daily life at the pre-hospital and inter-hospital stages of medical care.

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