538 - From Ambulance to Hospital – Bridging the Interoperability Gap in Emergency Care

In this episode of Talking HealthTech, host Peter Birch speaks with Stacey Clifford and Chris Roll from Daedalus about interoperability, structured data, and ambulance workflows in the Australian healthcare context. The discussion covers the development and implementation of the amPHI platform, which enables connected electronic patient care records for ambulance services, and explores how structured data and interoperability are being used to transform pre-hospital care, support clinical decision-making, and improve continuity of care. The episode also touches on the real-world deployment of amPHI in South Australia and lessons learned from international implementations.Key Takeaways:📄 amPHI is not simply a digitised version of paper records, but a comprehensive electronic patient care record (ePCR) system designed for ambulance services. It allows live data sharing between dispatched units and hospitals, facilitating smooth patient handovers and early hospital preparation.✍️ The use of structured data and standard nomenclature (e.g. SNOMED CT-AU) supports accurate, consistent, and interoperable documentation. This reduces reliance on free text, enhances reporting, and underpins meaningful data mining for quality reviews and clinical research.Integrating amPHI with national health systems like My Health Record allows paramedics not only to access patient histories in real-time but also to contribute records directly, improving patient care and information continuity across the healthcare system.🚑 The rollout in South Australia marks a transition from paper to digital for ambulance records, promising single patient records viewable by all involved and feeding back into My Health Record. Clinicians are engaged and eager to use the new platform.🤝 The discussion highlights that implementing standards like FHIR is only one part of effective interoperability. True benefits come from aligning on profiles, terminology, and ongoing collaboration between providers.🔍 Case studies from Denmark demonstrate how a mature digital ambulance record system can yield rich data for research and care improvement, such as assessing oxygen delivery to trauma patients.Check out the episode and full show notes on the Talking HealthTech website.Loving the show? Leave us a review, and share it with someone who might get some value from it. Keen to take your healthtech to the next level? Become a THT+ Member for access to our online community forum, meet ups, special offers and more exclusive content. For more information visit talkinghealthtech.com/thtplus