Million Dollar Ideers

For years, I’ve had a few ideas tossing around in my head, waiting for the day some generous venture capitalist would give me the money to implement them. He’d supply the money, I’d supply the design, EMS agencies and ambulance coach manufacturers would beat a path to my door, and I’d retire to my private island and wipe my ass with $50 bills for the rest of my days.

The first was a combination adult/pediatric spine board. Research disproving the efficacy of routine spinal immobilization killed that one.

Another was for an ambulance siren with a low-powered transmitter that would broadcast a signal to all cars within 300 feet, that said, “EMERGENCY VEHICLE APPROACHING! CHECK YOUR MIRRORS AND YIELD TO THE RIGHT!” All I needed was a politician in my pocket to propose legislation to mandate the appropriate receiver in all new vehicles.

But my best one was an aftermarket ambulance steering wheel, with integrated buttons for lights and siren, and push-to-talk buttons for your radio and PA. It would have an integrated heads-up display to project call info and driving directions directly on your windshield. Everything you need to run an ambulance call would be right there in front of you, with no need to take your hands off the wheel or your eyes off the road.

Industry leaders would praise my ingenuity, Nadine Levick would proclaim me an EMS visionary, and Kelly Wheels would be on every ambulance in the country. I’d be a hero.

Well, via Alan at Snarkybytes, part of that idea is already here.

With only a little engineering, that device could display all the CAD notes from your ambulance’s mobile data terminal, right there on your windshield. Instead of a Panasonic toughbook or something similar on a big, unwieldy dock, you could just have a small tablet inlet into your console for the odd instances when you need to input data yourself, with all the call info transmitted via Bluetooth to your HUD projector.

Dammit, there goes my Caribbean island…