MDA’s new cellular positioning technology

MDA’s new cellular positioning technology

נט"ן של מד"א

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An MDA intensive care car
An MDA intensive care car

A traffic accident in some remote road in the middle of the night. Someone calls 911, at which point the call center asks ‘what happened and where?’ the caller does not know their location. The call center tracks their location automatically and sends over a car with a medical team.

Magen David Adom (MDA) recently unveiled the new, advanced technology it is implementing, a combination of computer software, GPS and advanced communications, to pin point the exact location and send over the nearest intensive care car. The paramedics will see to the people injured. This is one of the innovations MDA is employing to live up to its creed: saving lives.

iHLS Israel Homeland Security

MDA’s new tracking system operates from its National Medical Dispatch Center south of Tel Aviv. This command and control system provides the solution to the difficulty of tracing the exact location of the event.

This is how it works: the caller, provided he or she are using a smartphone, must have their GPS on, so their exact location is transmitted by the mobile. The MDA call center sends a text message asking whether they have the caller’s permission to have their exact position. Only after the caller provides this authorization, does the MDA call center pin point the location and translated it to a point on the map, where the intensive care car is dispatched. The system has already assisted in tracing numerous accidents along Israel’s main roads.