Stryker® LIFENET / LIFEPAK Integration

AngelTrack can accept case data pushed up by your LIFEPAK devices, once you configure your LIFENET System Account.

Do you own LIFEPAK monitors from Stryker, Medtronic, or Physio-Control? If so, you can activate LIFENET and configure them to push their case data up to AngelTrack, where your crews can retrieve it from inside the PCR.

Activating the Integration

To activate AngelTrack's LIFEPAK integration, perform these steps:

1. Register all of your LIFEPAK devices in AngelTrack, in your Devices and Equipment List, which is accessible from the Settings page. Each LIFEPAK device record must have its manufacturer datafield set to "Stryker" or "Medtronic" or "Physio-Control" (no quotes), and its serial number must be input and double-checked; the integration depends on serial-number matching in order to select cases for import.
2. Ensure each LIFEPAK device has the appropriate Time Zone setting configured in it, so that its date and time will be auto-adjusted with each transmission to LIFENET. This is necessary because the device's date and time are stamped in its case data, which AngelTrack uses to match each case up to a PCR.
3. Send an email to lifepak@angeltrack.com, and include the following information:
   1. The words "Lifepak integration" in the subject line;
   2. Your business name;
   3. The name and email address of your supervisor who oversees the LIFEPAK devices; and
   4. A callback phone number.
4. We will then connect you with a Stryker representative, who will verify that your LIFEPAK devices are properly instrumented and configured, and then walk you through the process of configuring your LIFENET service account. Your LIFENET service account is the data exchange between your LIFEPAK devices and AngelTrack.

Using the Feature

From the PCR, the attending performs the following steps to import the case data from the LIFEPAK device:

1. Use the LIFEPAK device to finish collecting all vital signs and twelve-lead data, following the instructions given in the "Snapshotting" section below, and then close the case.
2. Wait for it to upload the case to LIFENET.
3. In the PCR, ensure that the leg times are correct -- especially the time of patient contact and the time returned to service -- because AngelTrack will use these to search for the correct case data from LIFENET.
4. In the PCR, navigate to the ECG page.
5. Select the correct LIFEPAK device from the picklist of company-owned monitors.
6. Click the gold lightning-bolt icon ↯ that appears to the right of the device selector.

AngelTrack will then search all of its LIFENET cases for a match, based on the monitor's serial number and on the PCR's time of patient contact and the time returned to service. That is to say: Your LIFENET case's start time (as recorded by your LIFEPAK device) must land between the PCR's time of patient contact and the time returned to service.

If any matching case is found, AngelTrack will import it, automatically creating a series of vital-signs and ECG records to represent the events reported by the monitor.

If case data was expected but not found, then double-check the monitor's serial number, its local date and time setting, and the leg times recorded in the PCR.

Snapshotting

A typical LIFEPAK case file contains a large number of individual vital-signs readings, strewn throughout the time interval of the encounter. This kind of data stream does not fit well into the NEMSIS spec; state trauma registries expect to receive a small number of well-populated vital-signs records, rather than a large number of sparsely-populated records.

In order to conform LIFEPAK data to this paradigm, AngelTrack looks for the following case events, treating them as snapshots:

• 12-Lead
• Defibrillation
• Annotations, if they include at least two vital-sign readings

Whenever one of those events occurs, AngelTrack will create a PCR-Vitals record and a PCR-ECG record to hold all available data for the event plus any additional vital-signs data reported during the 60-second period following the snapshot. This yields a set of PCR records which meet the expectations of your state trauma registry.

For this to work well, the attending must use the "12-Lead" button at relevant times during the encounter... same as one would use the "Snapshot" button on a ZOLL device.

Some LIFEPAK devices do not have a "12-Lead" button, so the attending can instead use the "Event" button, when configured to capture a 12-lead waveform with vital signs.

Note that AngelTrack does not treat the "Initial Rhythm" event as a snapshot point for which state-reportable PCR-Vitals and PCR-ECG records get created. Although the "Initial Rhythm" event does produce a strip image, the strip contains little diagnostic data, and no discrete vital-signs measures, so the attending would just end up deleting any PCR-Vitals and PCR-ECG record created for it.

Other Limitations

AngelTrack receives LIFEPAK case data from Stryker, and stores it for 60 days from the date of patient contact. The attending must use AngelTrack's Stryker integration feature to import this data into the PCR before the case data's age reaches this limit.

AngelTrack imports all of the vital signs, 12-lead strips, and shocks-given data that it can, creating PCR records to store it in the manner described above. All other case data is discarded.

Leg times (time enroute, time on scene, time transport began, et cetera) noted by the LIFEPAK do not get imported, because AngelTrack needs to collect those time punches from you via the Run Call page, since that is the only way AngelTrack can simultaneously collect your GPS position.