Canadian Validation of German Medical Emergency Datasets

Medical Emergency Datasets (MEDs) are brief summarizations of an individual's medical history, providing vital patient information to emergency medical providers. A recent German study [1] evaluated whether MEDs are useful to local emergency physicians and paramedics, and which health data were relevant to their medical management. To validate of the German study internationally, Canadian physicians and paramedics were recruited to provide feedback on the utility of the German MEDs as well as their specific content. Original documents and surveys were translated to English directly, with a goal of collecting quantitative and qualitative feedback. Overall, physicians and paramedics found the MEDs to be useful in their evaluation of hypothetical medical scenarios. Most of the MED content was very useful, with some items appearing extraneous. The findings of this study will be used to inform future development of MEDs as well as to drive future research.