Unlike the United States 911 emergency response system, which quickly connects a caller to a dispatcher who is trained to route a call to emergency medical, fire or law enforcement, Israelis have long dialed separate emergency numbers for police, ambulance, and fire (100, 101 and 102, respectively).Although Israel’s system saves time because callers don’t have to first talk to a 911 operator as they do in the US, what if a crisis requires a response from multiple services? A new three-way software using AI technology is the solution, according to Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s emergency medical service.The interconnect, which was developed by the in-house programming unit at MDA, will speed the flow of information between all three rescue services and potentially save time and lives in emergencies requiring responses from multiple agencies.
How does the interconnect work?
Setting the type of emergency into any of the service’s computer-assisted dispatch systems will determine whether multiple agencies are needed at the scene. For example, a call to MDA regarding someone injured in a shooting would automatically summon both an ambulance and police. Likewise, reporting an apartment fire to the Israel Fire and Rescue Service would summon personnel from all three services — firefighters to address the blaze itself, police to control street traffic, and ambulances to treat anyone potentially injured.“We’ve long believed that having separate numbers for police, EMS and fire rescue has been an advantage for callers in an emergency,” said Eli Bin, director-general of MDA. “In a medical emergency, for example, callers are instantly connected to an EMT or paramedic, who can provide lifesaving medical instructions to the caller while the ambulance is dispatched.”