Snap triage test

Determining who needs medical care at the scene of a disaster is still an old-fashioned procedure - medical personnel must check body temperature, heart rate, and muscle movement, a process that can take between 3-5 minutes per person.

Now, a group at the US Department of Homeland Security’s Science & Technology Directorate (DHS S&T) is developing a new device called the Standoff Patient Triage Tool (SPTT), that could reduce that diagnosis time to 30 seconds per person.

The SPTT takes key physiological readings, such as pulse, body temperature and respiration from 5 to 40ft away from a patient, using a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) that measures the velocity and displacement of vibrating objects.

The laser beam from the LDV is directed at the surface of interest, and the vibration amplitude and frequency are extracted from the Doppler shift of the laser beam frequency due to the motion of the surface.

An algorithm then converts those data points into measurements emergency teams can use to assess a patient’s medical condition.