This document discusses how smartphones can be used to improve safety and efficiency in ski patrol operations. It presents the problems with current paper-based systems, including delays in patient care and double data entry. The document then outlines how smartphones could allow patients to report accidents themselves, provide GPS location to speed response times, and enable patrol members to collect and share accident information and photos in real-time. Case studies from other industries like surf life saving that have successfully adopted mobile technologies are presented. The document argues that smartphones can enhance safety, customer experience and help resorts reduce insurance costs. It envisions a future where patient medical data can be seamlessly shared between the mountain and hospitals.

1. Using Smartphones in
Ski Patrol
Duncan Isaksen-Loxton
!
Fédération Internationale des Patrouilles de Ski
Big White, April, 2014
#FIPS2014

2. Duncan
Isaksen-Loxton
30 years in ski resorts
Ex PSIA Instructor
!
10 yrs Thredbo Patroller
Patrol Trainer
!
15 yrs Web & Mobile
Agency
!
10 yrs Surf Life Saving
IRB Trainer

3. Started Medic52 in 2013
www.medic52.com
!
Author of
‘The Smartphone Medic’
!
Amazon Paperback
Amazon Kindle
Founder &
Author

4. Social Media
Tag questions with
!
#smartskipatrol
!
and I will answer your questions

5. Hands Up!
• Are you constantly spending lots of time on
paperwork?
• Can’t read what’s on an incident form?
• Have you ever had a time when the medical
centre / doctor was not prepared for the patient?

6. Smartphone Survey
• Who has an iPhone?
• Who has an Android?

7. The Smartphone Problem
• Weather
• Cell phone signal
• Cost of installation
• Data Security

8. In this Presentation
• Results of 2 years of research and trials
• Show you why smartphones are beneficial
• Give you answers to the obvious problems
• Look at Case Study in other industries
• What this world looks like in the future
• How it works in practice
• Why we need to move now

9. The Resort Problem
Patient:!
Poorly educated
Lost
Delays care
Patroller:!
Paperwork
Double handles info
Needs time
Resort:!
Legislation driven
Insurance Protected
Negative publicity risk
National / International: No single view of situation

10. The Deck of Cards
• Only so much a person can remember, unless you
are a card counter - not much data
• Maths nerds believe we have not seen every
possible combination of a deal yet
• That’s a lot of data

11. Surf Life Saving Australia
• Has 166,000+ volunteers across 311 surf clubs
• Estimated 100 million beach visits per year via
36,000km of coastline
• Reduced coastal drowning over 7 years from 0.19 in
2004 -> 0.10 in 2011, per 100,000 population
✓ Through the use of mobile apps for recording
conditions & accidents
✓ Education on in-bound Qantas flights

12. Smartphones
Why are smartphones a potential solution?

13. Smartphones
• Fastest & most prolific piece of technology on the
planet
• Only taken 5 years (the industrial revolution took
40!)
★ 2009 5% of population
★ 2014 22% of population
(Business Insider Dec 2013)
• Tablets are spreading faster

14. Penetration
• Norway 67%
• Australia 64%
• Sweden 62%
• USA 56%
• Canada 56%
Our mobile planet, Google, BII Estimates, Gartner, IDC, World Bank 2013

15. Hardware is
improving faster than
humans can exhaust
the potential
application

16. Already happening
Jason Pearlmutter @ Mountain High
“The integration of our electronic investigation
database and iPad have decreased our time
spent per incident by 75 percent.”
Robert Chacon, Mountain High Assistant Mountain Manager, 2011

17. Other Examples
• ISS24/7 & Steep Management
• partners in 2014
• SkiPCR - iOS only, packaged with
hardware - launched in 2014

18. Imagine Mt. Powder Snow
• Fictional, but typical resort with 500,000 skier days
• 2.4 injuries / 1000 skier days
• 1,200 accidents
• 20 are career delaying / ending injuries

19. Typical customer spend
• Accommodation $1,200
• Lift pass $600
• Entertainment & food $800
• Flights / transport $300
• Ski rental & Lessons $400
• ~$50,000 over their lifetime (assuming 10 week visits)

20. Lost Customer
• Costs $50,000 to the industry
• If its a key family member, may stop the whole
family skiing
• Could result in kids not converting to lifelong skiers
• Cost to industry $200,000+

21. Using Smartphones
• We could influence ~10% (120) of accidents for the
better
• 5 of the serious injuries may not happen, or
recovery is better
• Reduction in insurance premiums
• Customer return increases

22. How?

23. Patient
• Smartphone app
• GPS Location
• Gets help faster
• Started their own accident
report
• Can use existing marketing app

25. Patroller
• Collects quality data
• Live via the cloud
• Better medico-legal coverage
• Photos & Witness statements
• No double handling of forms

30. Resort
• Visibility
• Target education
• Happier Customers
• Increase return visits
• Lower Premiums

31. There has never been
a better time

32. Industry Growth
• Key targets now are kids
• We rely on parents to be safe, and return
• We need kids to be safe and have fun
• Conversion to lifetime skier relies on no / minor
injuries
• Uphill battle against social & current marketing
style

33. Media & Press
• Michael Shumacher
• Debate around helmet use
• Research is fragmented
• Liam Neeson
• No condolence or sympathy note from resort
• Litigation worries

34. • Paper based forms
• Accident investigations with
GPS and diagrams
• Double entry
• Time / accuracy issues
• No real visibility
Ski Patrol
Now

35. Ski Patrol
Pioneers
• Patient uses GPS to identify
location
• Patroller gets to them faster
• Patroller collects information /
photos, shared via the cloud
• Handover is more efficient
• Patient history is more
complete

36. Snowboarder
• Young, no lessons, no helmet, uneducated friends
• Rookie patroller
• Lot’s of expert assistance
• Surgery was unprepared
• Poor communication of situation
• Could have saved this teenagers life?

37. Smartphones
• Weather
Cases for protection
Special gloves & liners
• Data Security
Encryption & remote wipe,
BYOD is far enough advanced
• Cost of installation
Prolific tech, no need to buy
lots of hardware
• Cell phone signal
Cell signals growing, argument
that it saves lives only a benefit
to improve it

38. The Future
• Pulse Oximeter
• Tricorders (Scanadu)
• Share data from scene, direct to
paramedic / hospital
• All possible because of technology

39. The Smartphone Medic
• Available shortly
• www.thesmartphonemedicbook.com

40. Medic52
• Available shortly on iOS &
Android
• Free to use on your phone
• www.medic52.com

41. Takeaways
• It costs less than you think
• More data = more possibilities
• Agree on an international data format
• Customer education is the key

42. Thank you & Questions?
• Duncan Isaksen-Loxton
• duncan@medic52.com www.medic52.com
• Twitter / Facebook / Instagram: @medic52app
• AU: +61 (2) 800 65 082
• US: +1 (530) 563 5632
#smartskipatrol