Research Projects: Trauma Network Should Save Lives

Med. in NRW - this is the name of the biggest health competition organized by the government in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) with a budget of 70 million euros. An international jury has selected 33 winning projects from more than 200 competitive contributions. One of the projects is the Trauma Network under the leadership of the University of Münster. 21/11/2008

The stand of NRW presents
research projects; © Messe
Düsseldorf 2008

"Whether injured persons survive after an accident or not depends on the treatment given in the hospital," says doctor Christian Juhra from the University of Münster. That is the result of a study of the German Society for Accident Surgery (DGU) two years ago. However, time plays an important role as well. "If the injured person has severe abdominal injuries, his probability of surviving drops by one percent every three minutes," says Juhra. Above all in rural areas, where clinics are not accessible within a few kilometers, time and distance become a problem for the injured person.

The Trauma Network should change this. 45 medical centres in Münster and the surrounding area are involved in the project, and there are clinics in Lower Saxony and the Netherlands taking part as well. In order for an emergency doctor to quickly find out which hospital is best equipped to treat a patient, the contact data of the medical centres are collected in an Internet database. The doctor can then retrieve this information and act accordingly. For patients with light injuries, treatment in a small hospital will suffice. In the case of major injuries, however, patients should be brought directly to a larger clinic.

Another planned advantage of the trauma network is the capacity to pass the patient on swiftly to the appropriate specialist. "Often after initial care is given it becomes apparent that other medical examinations are necessary, such as with a neurosurgeon," says Juhra. The aim of the project is in such cases to transmit, for example, already available pictures from catscans to the specialist online. "Nowadays such images are often still transported by taxi. This is more expensive, costs time and in the age of Internet and e-mail is simply outdated," explains Juhra.

The starting shot for the competition was two years ago. The hospitals were asked to deliver innovative proposals to six thematic areas of the competition. The Trauma Network is one example from the area of "regional profile development". The other areas of the competition are: prevention and promotion of health in the workplace, applied medical technologies, telemedicine and telematics, innovations for hospitals, sanatariums and health resorts. The projects should start in the beginning of next year if the support funding is approved. Half of the funding comes from the EU, the other half from federal state or personal resources.

At the NRW stand in hall 3 at MEDICA, fair visitors can find out more about this and other projects.

MEDICA.de