Ethical Approval and Consent to participate: Not applicable.
The study is in line with the current European general data protection regulation (GDPR).
Consent for publication: Not applicable.
Availability of supporting data: The dataset generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due the ownership of the different air ambulance providers but are available from the corresponding author on request.
Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Funding: None
Authors' contributions
P.H-C. and F. A-Z developed the study. All authors were involved the development of the questionnaire. P. H-C and M. St wrote the first manuscript draft. All authors were involved in the data analysis and the improvement of the manuscript. Statistical analysis was done by P.H-C and F.A-Z. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the following air ambulance providers / organizations for participating in this study (in alphabetical order):
AAKSS (Air Ambulance Kent Surrey Sussex) – UK
ADAC-Luftrettung – Germany
Air Zermatt – Switzerland
AirCorps112 – Ireland
Alpine Air Ambulance – Switzerland
AP3 – Switzerland
ARA (Air Rescue Austria) – Austria
BABCOCK – Spain
Centre Medical Héliporté de Bra sur Lienne (CMH) – Belgium
Czech Army – Czech Republic
Den Landsdækkende Akutlægehelikopterording – Denmark
DRF-Luftrettung – Germany
DSA Aviation Company – Czech Republic
EMRS (Emergency Medical Retrieval Service) – Scotland UK
FinnHEMS – Finland
GAMMA AIR MEDICAL – Greek
Heli South Tirol – Italy
Helikopter Air Transport Austria - Czech Republic
Hungarian Air Ambulance Ltd. – Hungary
IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) – Israel
INEM (Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica) – Portugal
LAR (Luxembourg Air Rescue) – Luxembourg
Lifeliner (Medical Air Assistance) - Netherlands
London's Air Ambulance – UK
National Air Ambulance Service – Russia
Norsk Luftambulanse – Norway
Northern Helicopter – Germany
NWAA (North West air ambulance) – UK
ÖAMTC Flugrettung – Austria
Polish Medical Air Rescue – Poland
REGA – Switzerland
RTS – Spain
SAMU-68 GHRMSA – France
Sécurité Civile – France
Slovenian army- Slovenia
SMURD (Serviciul Mobil de Urgențǎ, Reanimare și Descarcerare) – Romania
Svensk Luftambulans – Sweden
Zivilschutzhubschrauber – Germany
POCUS in HEMS collaborators
Alistair Maddock, Scotland UK; [email protected]
Anatolij Truhlar, Czech Republic; [email protected]
Antonio Joaosagla, Portugal; [email protected]
Daniel Nevin, UK; [email protected]
Daniel Werner, Germany; [email protected]
Didier Moens, Belgium; [email protected]
Diego Aylagas, Spain; [email protected]
Eimhear Quinn, UK; @eimsyeire
Eva Smrzova, Czech Republic; [email protected]
Frederic Pernot, France: [email protected]
Fredrik Helliksson, Sweden; [email protected]
Geert Jan van Geffen, The Netherlands; [email protected]
Gernot Aichinger, Austria; [email protected]
Jason van der Velde, Ireland; [email protected]
John Chatterjee, UK; [email protected]
Jörg Seifert, Germany; [email protected]
Kirsti Strømmen Holm, Norway; [email protected]
Manfred Hirner, The Netherlands; [email protected]
Marcel de Leeuw, The Netherlands; [email protected]
Marcin Kowalski, Poland; [email protected]
Marton Radnai, Hungary; [email protected]
NikoRebling , Switzerland; [email protected]
Philipp Lakatos, Germany; [email protected]
Rein Ketelaars, The Netherlands; [email protected]
Richard Lyon, UK; [email protected]
Robert Galazkowski, Poland; [email protected]
Robert Gebei, Hungary; [email protected]
Sebastian Daniel Tranca, Romania; [email protected]
Stephen Sollid, Norwegen; [email protected]
Uros Lampic, Slovenia: [email protected]
Urs Pietsch, Switzerland; [email protected]
Uwe Schweigkofler, Germany; [email protected]
Ville Voipio, Finland; [email protected]
Wolfgang Voelckel, Austria: [email protected]