Ambulance

Focus on Ambulance Innovation
“Watson,
I presume?”
Ambulance
Care
After the
Fourth
Industrial
Revolution
By Jaap Hatenboer,
Strategy & Innovation Manager,
UMCG Ambulancezorg,
Netherlands
The quote: “I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past” is from Patrick Henry. Patrick was
an American attorney, planter and politician who became known as an orator during the movement for
independence in Virginia in the 1770s. I suppose he meant that we are walking backwards into the future.
We judge new developments using our past experiences.
The title of this article is just an
illustration of this fact. Interpreting
the title completely depends on your
past experiences. You might be a
Harry Potter or a Sherlock Holmes
fan. You might like expeditions to the
heart of Africa. But even if you are
a Sherlock Holmes fan, it matters
which version you prefer or which
version you recently watched. Is it
Doctor John Watson or Doctor Joan
Watson, is this about London or New
York?... and the list goes on if you are
also interested in the actors; or you
might be interested in other issues
and for you there is only one Watson
and his first name is Paul.
The simple fact is that we struggle with the
future and we judge the present based on
past experience combined with our age
group, job, hobbies etc. Adding three letters
the title becomes “IBM Watson, I presume”.
Just adding IBM makes all the difference.
Only then most of us would understand
that this article might be about the IBM
Analytics. Well it isn’t and it is.
This article is an attempt to understand
the relevance of the fourth industrial
revolution for ambulance care. This
revolution is sending some very unsettling
shockwaves through society. For those
who have missed it, the fourth industrial
revolution is a collective term embracing
a number of automation, data exchange
and manufacturing technologies (https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_4.0 ). So this
is about Google, Apple, Tesla, Olaeris, Uber,
Facebook, EdX, PrecisionHawk, DNV ReVolt,
Precision agriculture and the list goes on
and on. The fourth revolution might be on
a collision course with our present way of
working.
Trekkies will probably remember “We are
the Borg, resistance is futile, you will be
assimilated.” Maybe this is the right moment
to get used to this version “The fourth
industrial revolution has arrived, resistance
is …” Well you already know the rest. So
how might this impact on ambulance care,
will it actually be the end of ambulance care
as we know it? Here are some initial ideas
about how it might work out.
Anyone who follows the car industry knows
that Tesla launched some really disturbing
new functionalities. You need to understand
that Tesla vehicles have a lot in common
with iPads and get new functionalities by
software updates. The 7 series updates
introduced some useful functionalities that
point at the fact that vehicles increasingly
will become (semi) autonomous and
interconnected.
Picture left:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Industry_4.0.png
Spring 2016 | Ambulancetoday
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