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System Measures Stress In Emergency Callers' Voice
cylonlover writes "Chances are that if you're calling 9-1-1 (or 9-9-9, or whatever it is where you are), you're not likely to tell the operator that your case isn't all that urgent, and that it can wait. The problem is, sometimes emergency dispatch centers are so overloaded with callers – all of them stating that they need assistance right now – that some sort of system is required in order to determine who should get help first. Dutch researchers claim to have developed just such a system, which analyzes callers' voices to determine how stressed-out they are."
How well people deal with emergency situations varies hugely. This system would prioritise a 5 year old ringing about a huge splinter she just got over a military veteran reporting a 3 car pileup with limbs everywhere. Can't beat human judgement in a job as important as this.
Or those who have been in "these" situations before and now how to go about the call calmly.
Exactly right. This sounds like a bad idea, in that it automatically penalizes those who, by virtue of training, experience, or simply an abundance of mellowness, don't present the physiological response this system is designed to detect. Conversely, it rewards those who are wound too tight or who have simply led very sheltered lives and are completely undone when the water heater starts to leak.
Cool technology, totally misapplied.
I'm getting tired of this trope, especially as it's used as keyword to get immediate panic reflex.
The fact is, in any given society, resources for healthcare will be limited, and generally smaller than what is perceived as necessary by the public.
This will automatically cause a need for prioritizing, as some medical threats are more immediate than others, and should be treated first.
These researchers have been looking into a way for making that more effective. However, it has not been implemented! So 'the Dutch' aren't doing anything here.
Given that waiting lists have been exceedingly long in NL for quite some time now, not due to lack of funding per se, but lack of trained personnel, it's also more than a little irrelevant.
Lastly, I'm just going to assume you live in the U.S.A here, since you're using the rationing healthcare rhetoric. May I remind you that this is done on a large scale in your country already? Only in your case, it isn't rationed based on need, as any decent person would want, but based on how much money you have. Yes you can, in a few select places in the U.S.A, get the best possible healthcare, but only if you have the enormous amounts of money that's asked for it. Normal people have to do with less healthcare than any given Dutch person gets, for much more. Rationing is not so much our problem, as yours.