[interview] the project story
Image Credit : Mubaloo Ltd
Project Overview
The Disptach app, created for London’s Air Ambulance through EE’s Customised App Partnership with Mubaloo, can reduce emergency dispatch time by an average of two minutes and in some cases, rapid response cars can be dispatched in as little as 10 seconds. By providing access to the necessary information more efficiently, teams can be dispatched quicker to deliver life saving treatment.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Founded in 2009, Mubaloo is the UK’s leading mobile consultancy and enterprise app developer; enabling transformation and disrupting business processes through consultation, implementation and the deployment of enterprise-grade applications.
Mubaloo has a wealth of expertise working across sectors developing innovative mobile strategies and intelligent mobile apps. The team provides business transformation consultancy for businesses and the project management, design, integration, development and testing of mobile apps. Mubaloo helps to transform business processes, staff productivity and customer engagement, all through the use of mobile and location-based technologies.
Mubaloo helps clients embrace large-scale transformation through mobile. Its mobile strategy consultants are expert partners in identifying the opportunities for mobile across an organisation, to deliver robust mobile strategies and intelligent mobile apps.
Mubaloo is recognised for its in-house, bespoke end-to-end developers, UX experts and QA engineers. The team is distinguished in the market not only for delivering intuitive, intelligent apps, but also for their scalable and secure integration capabilities.
Mubaloo is credited as a thought leader in mobile innovation. From creating in-house innovation engines, to utilising location-based technologies, Mubaloo deliver mobile solutions for large enterprise clients to help transform business process and end-user engagement.
In 2014, Mubaloo was ranked third in the Deloitte Tech Fast 50 UK, and 25th in Europe. The firm was also recognised by NEF: The Innovation Institute as the Most Innovative Company in 2014.
Project Brief
London’s Air Ambulance is the charity that delivers an advanced trauma team to critically injured people in London. The charity responds to some of the most severe medical emergencies, serving the 10 million people who live, work and commute within the M25. On average, London’s Air Ambulance responds to the six of the most critical emergencies per day, treating people at the scene, when there may not be time to get them to a hospital. Time is the most critical factor in helping to increase the chances of helping to save lives, or quality of life, for people who have suffered serious injury.
In 2013, EE worked with London’s Air Ambulance to bring 4G mobile technology to the response team, in the air and on the ground, to provide access to the Greater London A-Z app. This connectivity would provide access to searchable locations, to help the London’s Air Ambulance team when responding to emergencies. Through this advancement it became apparent that there were further opportunities to use mobile technologies to make improvements to London’s Air Ambulance’s response process.
As EE’s Customised Mobile App Partner, Mubaloo was approached to work with EE and London’s Air Ambulance to identify the opportunities to drive operational improvements through mobile. At the start of 2014 work started to create a new app that would have an impact on London’s Air Ambulance’s processes and response times, to help them save more lives.
Project Need
An advanced trauma paramedic is responsible for identifying the most severe cases and assigning London’s Air Ambulance to respond. Sat within the London Ambulance Service Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), which deals with 5,000 calls per day, the paramedic looks for the most severe cases, where patients are at high risk of dying. The process involved calling through the top priority cases to London’s Air Ambulance dispatch, where the details would need to be repeated and confirmed three times, to ensure the information was correct. This information was then fed into a computer to get a print out of the mission information for the air and ground teams.
Mubaloo worked to create an app that would integrate with the London Ambulance Services system to save time and reduce the chance of human error. It was essential that the app was reliable, secure and was able to immediately receive urgent case information.
In addition to being able to send information to responder teams, the app integrates London A-Z maps to help London’s Air Ambulance’s team accurately navigate to the scene of an incident.
One of the objectives was to ensure that ground and air teams could reduce their dependence on paper processes and paper based maps, with ease of access to emergency information. By creating an app that was intrinsically linked to London’s Air Ambulance’s unique challenges and operational processes, it has been possible to save additional minutes in dispatch and response times.
User Experience
Operating in a high-stress environment, it was essential that the app was able to help provide the right information in an easy to understand way. In addition, London’s Air Ambulance works with some of the top doctors from around the World, who are seconded to the charity for six months. It was therefore important that the app was easy to understand and required minimal training.
Rather than using the typical delivery method of pushing data out, the app was designed to be constantly connected to the system, to ensure accuracy and zero lag time. Through deploying the app to its ground and air team, London’s Air Ambulance has been able to save up to two minutes on its dispatch process. In some incidents, the team, when car based has also been able to be assigned in as little as 10 seconds.
This is an example of a mission critical app that is having a huge impact on the way in which London’s Air Ambulance operates. The app means that when an emergency is identified, a controller within the EOC can press a button so that the right information is immediately sent out to London’s Air Ambulance FLAA. This has a big impact on the human element of London’s Air Ambulance and means that London’s Air Ambulance has a better chance of helping to save lives or help those most in need.
For London’s Air Ambulance, saving time can mean saving lives.
Project Marketing
As this is a custom made app, designed for London’s Air Ambulance, no marketing was required around it. However, the app has been covered by BBC News, BBC Click, London Live, Made in Bristol, The Telegraph, Computer Weekly, EHI Live, Mobile News and a number of other publications.
Project Privacy
The app went into live testing in September 2014 for a number of months in conjunction with current processes, to ensure that it was reliable when it eventually went into full-scale deployment in February 2015.
The app has made a huge difference to the way in which London’s Air Ambulance is able to respond to emergencies, especially when the ground or air team has already been deployed. The app enables London’s Air Ambulance to quickly reallocate its team once they have finished a mission.
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