Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Emergency Response System Formed to Ensure the Safety of Indian Citizens
Overview
Country:India
Industry:Healthcare, Public Safety
Customer Profile
The Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) was formed in India to meet the need for a state-of-the-art emergency response system that could help save millionsof lives.
Business Situation
In India there is no single number like 9-1-1, no single agency to coordinate emergency response, and no specific standards exist for ambulances. A strong need emergedto have a centralized system of emergency response, whichwould assist a victimin the least possible amount of time.
Solution
EMRI, along with its technology partner, Satyam, created anemergency response systemusing Microsoft® .NET.
Benefits
Provides a state-of-the-art response center that saves thousands of lives
Provides life-saving ambulances quickly / “108 is accessible by anyone and provides the quickest response to any distress call at any time of day, just like in the U.S.A. or Europe.”
Venkat Changavalli, CEO,EMRI
Mr. Ramalinga Raju, Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd., strongly felt the need for a state-of-the-art emergency response system that could help citizens in a timely fashion and save millions of lives. The Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) was formed by the Raju brothers as a not-for-profit entity with a view not only to providing emergency management, but also to conducting research related to emergencies and providing various training programs. EMRI wanted to create an end-to-end system that would automate all the activities of acall center,such as reaching the emergency, ambulance tracking, and monitoring the patient care process. EMRI, along with its technology partner, Satyam, created an emergency response system using Microsoft® .NET. All activities of the call center have been automated and 108 now provides a state-of-the-art response center that has saved thousands of lives by providing timely emergency services.
Situation
India—a democratic country of more than a billion people—has lacked a coordinated emergency response system. Eighty-six thousand people are killed in accidents every year. Typically, at least 30 to 45 minutes elapse before an accident victim arrives at a hospital. Twelve percent of the institutions in the trauma care sector have no access to ambulances. Only 50 percent of the available ambulance services possess the acute care facilities needed to keep an accident victim alive during transportation; and only 4 percent of personnel staffing these services receive certified formal training.
In India, there is no single phone number for a citizen to call, unlike the U.S. (9-1-1) and the European Union (1-1-2) public emergency systems. Police, fire, and public and private hospitals have separate numbers; precious time is lost while researching the appropriate number to call. Not only that, secondary injuries occurring during transport may be worse than the primary injuries sustained, due to the lack of appropriate ambulatory facilities. Compounding this problem is the lack of well-trained Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and paramedics.
Mr. Ramalinga Raju, Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Limited, strongly felt the need for a state-of-the-art emergency response system that could help needy citizens in a timely fashion and savemillionsof lives. The Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) was formed by the Raju brothers as a not-for-profit entity with a view not only to provide emergency management but also to conduct research related to emergencies, and conduct various training programs. Its goal is to be the best in the world in emergency management.
As a first step, EMRI was recognized as a nodal agency by the state government of Andhra Pradesh in order to provide emergency response throughout the state, in Public-Private Partnership. The chairman has set a time frame forEMRI to launch the service in four months to cover 10 million people in five cities.
Through the Andhra Pradesh state government, EMRI approached the Government of India for the allotment of a single, toll-free number. 1-0-8 was already reserved for emergency and disaster management, so this is the number that was allocated.
EMRI and Satyam Computer Services Ltd. decided to create an Emergency Response System that automates all the activities of the call center: reaching the emergency site by Emergency Response Vehicle (Police, Fire, Medical), tracking the ambulance(for medical cases), monitoring the emergency care process, informing the police about the accident, and integrating the voice-logging systems for voice replay. EMRI has a physician available in the call center at all times. It also operates 30 ALS and 40 BLS ambulances. The EMRI ambulances are equipped with the latest in technology equipment and are installed with highly receptive communication equipment. The ambulances are equipped with the extrication tools, fire extinguishers, rescue blankets, shovels,and so on, needed to rescue anaccident victim. Ambulances are owned by EMRI with trained Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) aboard.
Solution
A ModernCallCenter
EMRI and Satyam Computer Services Ltd. signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) making Satyam EMRI’s technology partner. Satyam IT professionals started developing and integrating several vendor-supplied systems to create a single seamless solution including Computer Telephony Integration (Computer Communication Toolkit - CCT), Voice Logger system, Geographic Information System (GIS)/Maps, Global Positioning System (GPS)/Automatic Vehicle Location Technology (AVLT), and Mobile Communication.
Emergency Response System is complex software that integrates with many critical third-party systems for managing emergencies. It automates all the activities of the call center and support activities of emergency handling,such as medical assistance to critical patients, ambulance management, equipment management and partner tracking.
When a citizen calls 1-0-8, from any of the cities, from a fixed-line or mobile telephone, the call is instantly connected to a central site in Hyderabad, which handles medical, fire, and police emergencies through a Nortel Meridian1 Option 61C PBX. A Nortel Communication Server 1000 IP PBX immediately routes the call to one of EMRI’s Communications Officers using Nortel’s Contact Center Manager Server technology.
Simultaneously CCT passes a message with call details to the Communication Officer’s desktop application,and thenit creates an entry interface (pop-up) with the caller’s location and caller’s previous call’s details, allowing the agent to verify the address of the emergency. The Communication Officer determines the emergency type and records details about the victim. Help is dispatched by either the medical dispatch officer or by the police dispatch officer. GIS maps of the cities are of great help in locating the emergency. AVLT is useful to quickly locate the nearest ambulance or first responder that is available. Since location information is not yet available from mobile phones, the officers depend on the information provided by the caller and the expertise of the dispatch officer. The interaction of the caller with the staff of EMRI is recorded. A six-way call center conference is possible among the caller, medical, police, fire dispatch officer, a medical doctor, and a supervisor.
Solution Architecture
Application architecture is based upon advanced technologies such as Microsoft® ASP.NET,Microsoft .NET, and Windows®operating system–based client applications and services. The software is built using highly distributed components that enhance scalability and reliability.
Microsoft .NET version 1.1 helps build widely distributed applications. In this case, it provides interaction with other hardware, such as Nortel Switch, and applications such as the GIS-ESRI application for the Client Call Manager application. Microsoft ASP.NET–based Web services provide functionalities for various remote distributed applications. A Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 database is used as the storage for the applications.
A Windows service built for mailing SMS is used to send alerts and messages to mobile devices. A shared third-party well-managed mail server with SMTP service provides the gateway for sending e-mail messages for the core application. The Client Call Manager application was developed using Windows Forms(the development library within the Microsoft .NET Framework for building rich Windows-based applications) to capture the details of the emergency calls received. This information is communicated to the application using the Microsoft .NET remoting client and the Microsoft .NET remoting components hosted on the remote server.
The system was implemented with the objective of 99.999 percent up-time with fault tolerance and back-up provisions. This system is also designed for handling 200,000 emergency calls a day.
Benefits
Commenting on the success of the project, Venkat Changavalli, CEO, EMRI, says, “108 is accessible by anyone and provides the quickest response to any distress call at any time of day, just like in the U.S.A. or Europe.”
Provides a State-of-the-ArtCallCenter
When a citizen calls from a fixed-line or mobile telephone, the call is instantly connected to a central site in Hyderabad. The system finds the location of the call and immediately dispatches help.
The dispatching system uses the help of GIS and AVLT to dispatch the service. AVLT is a system that tracks the ambulance vehicle as it moves. The dispatch officer can visually see it on his system and give the directions to the pilot or driver,based on the address information of the emergency incident.This helps in reaching the emergency site faster. The dispatch officer can even help the driver with suggestions such as alternate routes to reach the place.
Provides Life-Saving Ambulances Quickly
An integrated approach in ambulance design was followed to provide best-in-class services to emergency victims. The response time has been cut from 60 to 180 minutes to 5 to 30 minutes through the use of the solution and has helped in saving more than 2000 lives. “The system has helped us to provide better, faster, cheaper, larger, and steadier emergency response,” concludes Dr. Sudhakar Varanasi, Sr. Vice President, Satyam Computers Ltd. who spear-headed the development.
Future Plans
Because urban cities are covered by GSM service from various providers, GSM has been chosen as the main medium for communication between emergency response center and mobile vehicles (ambulances and other response vehicles). However, other technologies, such as GPRS and WiMAX, are also being evaluated for the future.A number of innovations are also being worked on.
About Satyam Computers
Satyam Computer Services Ltd. (NYSE: SAY) is a global IT Consulting Services Provider offering a range of expertise aimed at helping customers re-engineer and re-invent their businesses to compete successfully in an ever-changing marketplace. Over 28,000 highly-skilled professionals at Satyam work onsite, offsite, offshore and near shore, to provide customized IT solutions for companies in several industry sectors. Satyam’s ideas and products have resulted in technology-intensive transformations that have met the most stringent international quality standards.Twenty Satyam Development Centers in India, the U.S., the U.K., the U.A.E., Canada, Hungary, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Japan and Australia serve 469 global companies, of which 156 are Fortune Global 500 and Fortune U.S. 500 corporations as of March 31, 2006. Satyam’s presence spans 55 countries across six continents.
Microsoft .NET
Microsoft .NET is software that connects people, information, systems, and devices through the use of Web services. Web services are a combination of protocols that enable computers to work together by exchanging messages. Web services are based on the standard protocols of XML, SOAP, and WSDL, which allow them to interoperate across platforms and programming languages.
.NET is integrated across Microsoft products and services, providing the ability to quickly build, deploy, manage, and use connected, secure solutions with Web services. These solutions provide agile business integration and the promise of information anytime, anywhere, on any device.
For more information about Microsoft .NETand Web services, please visit these Web sites: