M-Health Telemedicine and Telepresence in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery: An Innovative Prehospital Healthcare Concept in Structurally Weak Areas

Traditional Prehospital Emergency Medicine (PHEM)

PHEM involves specialized clinical abilities to treat a wide range of medical conditions, from minor illnesses and injuries to time-critical, life-threatening emergencies and acute pain (Galinski et al., 2010; Metelmann & Metelmann, 2016). That requires mastering a broad spectrum of multiple medical, surgical and trauma pathologies as well as non-clinical abilities including logistics, crew resource and rescue management, communication, teamwork, as well as the patient transport to a medical care facility if needed (Wilson et al., 2015). The results obtained by Roudsari et al. (2007) suggest four different medical emergency systems worldwide. They vary between countries in quality and range from (1) no organized PHEM structure in most developing countries, (2) basic life support, (3) advanced life support done by paramedics to (4) advanced life support by paramedics and emergency physicians. In most developed regions, medical professionals (paramedics, emergency physicians) make all efforts before arrival in the hospital as part of the advanced life support system (Metelmann & Metelmann, 2016).