Healthcare • Emergency Services

PHEMnet
Air Ambulance Network

Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine network - a FileMaker system revolutionizing air ambulance operations, now used by all UK doctors training in pre-hospital emergency medicine.

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Project Results

100s

Hours saved in clinical time

All UK

Doctors training in PHEM

Multiple

Air ambulance operators

Lives

Saved through best practices

The Challenge

Throughout the UK, air ambulance charities operate helicopters with highly skilled clinical teams, who provide emergency care and safe hospital transfers for the most serious incidents and patients in remote locations.

Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance is committed to continual improvement and professional development in the demanding field of pre-hospital emergency medicine (PHEM). However, they were recording all their incidents on paper, making it very time-consuming to carry out regular reviews of cases and interventions.

To analyse specific types of injury or intervention, they had to manually sift through hundreds of cases - a process that was taking valuable clinical time away from patient care.

Key Challenges

Paper-based incident recording system
Time-consuming manual case reviews
Difficulty analysing specific injuries or interventions
Manual sifting through hundreds of cases
Clinical time spent on administration rather than patient care
Limited ability to identify patterns and best practices

Smart Wolf's
Solution

Smart Wolf developed a comprehensive FileMaker system known as PHEMnet (Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine network) with four key areas of functionality for air ambulance organizations.

Digital Incident Recording

Air Ambulance clinicians record details of each incident, including patient conditions, injuries, medical team, treatments, and outcomes

Patient condition recording
Injury documentation
Treatment tracking
Outcome monitoring

Medical Device Integration

Incident records are supplemented by pulling in detailed data from medical devices onboard the air ambulance

Automatic data import
Device synchronization
Real-time monitoring
Data accuracy

EPCR System Integration

Contemporaneous observations are shared through integration with the electronic patient care report system used by ground ambulances

Ground ambulance integration
Data sharing
Unified patient records
Cross-team collaboration

Multi-Platform Access

Available via WebDirect from any device with a web browser, FileMaker Pro for desktops, and FileMaker Go for iOS devices

WebDirect access
Desktop application
iPad & iPhone apps
Cross-platform sync

Technical Implementation

Database Architecture

Multi-table relational design
Optimized for performance
Scalable data structure

Security Features

NHS-compliant security
Encrypted data storage
Audit logging

User Experience

Intuitive interface design
Mobile-friendly access
Customisable workflows

Transformational
Results

Since PHEMnet was adopted, clinicians have freed up hundreds of hours of clinical time by having data and reports instantly available. This has transformed how air ambulance services operate across the UK.

With the insights from the reporting and analysis, they have identified best practices that are already helping them to save more lives. This includes how resources are geographically deployed, as well as some very specific medical capabilities which are now included in every crew.

Impact Summary

Hundreds of hours of clinical time freed up
Best practices identified saving more lives
Improved resource deployment decisions
Essential medical capabilities now standard in every crew

Adoption

Before:

Single air ambulance

After:

Multiple operators nationwide

National rollout

Professional Training

Before:

Limited tracking

After:

All UK PHEM doctors

100% coverage

Licensing

Before:

Internal system

After:

Royal College of Surgeons

National standard

Platform Access

Before:

Desktop only

After:

Web, desktop, mobile

Universal access

National
Recognition & Adoption

Through competitive tendering, PHEMnet is now licensed to the Royal College of Surgeons' Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care, and the Intercollegiate Board for Training in Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine.

It is now used by all doctors training in pre-hospital emergency medicine in the UK to record and review their skills and experience. The system has been adopted by numerous other air ambulance operators across the country and is now known as PHEMnet – Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine network.