Could this footage be used as part of a regular review of team and medical performance? Read on to find out!

At ARHT we have the benefit of having a camera crew on board most flights as part of a partnership with the TV show: Rescue 1. The beneficial exposure of the on-board footage has documented well how we function as a team and provide high quality medical care. The TV show has helped increase the Trust’s exposure at both a local and national level.

With such an abundant and powerful resource (all this footage!) is there a way it can be maximized any further? It might be worthwhile discussing how footage of jobs could be used within an educational context either for debriefing, learning techniques or review of team function. Looking through the literature there’s been some discussion of the benefits of using real-time video footage to analyze team functioning and make processes better!

A recent survey of all US trauma centres revealed 20% currently use trauma video review for their trauma teams. Of those, 100% of programs using it reported improvements in their trauma process! While some programs had previously used it, the most common reason for discontinuation was “technical reason”- this is unlikely to problem in our setting given the outstanding team from Rescue 1 that runs our cameras. Interesting that medico-legal was NOT considered the main issue. And more importantly, of all the current programs using it, none had had medico-legal issues.

1. Patient privacy: this would not be shown to anyone outside the ARHT team and is analogous to reviewing a case except video would now be used to supplement the discussion

2. Team privacy: It would be crucial that each member of the team approve discussion and review of the footage. Any concerns by a team member would prevent the footage from being used.

3. Goals: well established protocol, goals and objectives and a predefined time to review this footage would be needed.

4. Established policies: all stakeholders from pilots, crewman, paramedics and physicians will be needed to provide insight into how this can move forward .

This post is a way of starting the discussion! Would love to hear comments, concerns/criticisms and especially enthusiasm!

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Full-text pdfs for this post are available here (secure area limited to ADHB staff only – ADHB has subscription access for staff to these journals through the Philson Library at the University of Auckland School Of Medicine)