‘Ambucycles’ bring aid in minutes to patients with MI, stroke in Israel

Innovation was a key theme during the Exponential Medicine 2014 conference in San Diego, and providing volunteer health workers in Israel with medically equipped motorcycles, or “ambucycles,” to reduce emergency response time exemplified that theme.

Laurence Sarah Ainouz, CEO of Health:Augmented, and former senior vice president and chief innovation officer of Teva Pharmaceuticals, told the audience about the innovations a group of volunteers called United Hatzalah of Israel made in bringing emergency services to patients experiencing life-threatening conditions such as MI or stroke.

Ainouz, who is on the board of United Hatzalah, said in congested cities such as Tel Aviv, an ambulance can take more than 20 minutes to arrive on the scene of a patient experiencing a cardiac or other event. Too often, patients would die before the arrival of the emergency care workers.

To reduce that time, small, nimble motorcycles were fitted with defibrillators and other emergency equipment, and a network of more than 2,300 volunteers are at the ready to reach the patient and provide care until a regular ambulance team arrives. All volunteers are trained as EMTs, paramedics or physicians.

Similar to taxi service Uber, all of the volunteers have phone-enabled GPS, so only 10 to 12 of the closest volunteers are dispatched to the patient, enabling a quick response.

“We were able to reduce that time to 3 minutes,” Ainouz told the audience.

Ainouz said in the areas with the most heavily networked volunteers, the time it takes to reach a patient can be as low as 90 seconds.

For patients in hard-to-reach places, such as a hiker in a remote location, the group developed an all-terrain vehicle called the “ambutractor,” which is equipped with emergency response equipment and is large enough to transport a patient to a waiting ambulance.

According to the Friends of United Hatzalah of Israel website, the organization responds to about 211,000 calls annually, about 25% of which are critical emergencies. Its services are free and provided to anyone, regardless of race, religion or gender.

Donations can be made by visiting its website or by mailing a check to United Hatzalah of Israel, 208 E. 51 St., Suite 303, New York, NY 10022.