Hastings-Quinte Chief of Paramedic Services Doug Socha (File Photo: Mary Thomas/Quinte News)
Hastings County is taking part in a paramedic services science research program on paramedic services along with NASA and Canadian National Defence.
Recently, Chief of Hastings-Quinte Paramedic Services Doug Socha spent three years seconded to the National Defence Security and Science Centre in Ottawa.
Now, he is representing Canada’s Paramedic Chiefs on the international project out of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Socha is spending some time at a session in California this week in the Next Generation First Responder (NGFR) program, a project of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology directorate.
County chief administrative officer Jim Pine told Quinte News Wednesday the program also includes Canada’s Centre for Security Science and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“They’re looking at developing an experiment around Artificial Intelligence and how that can be used to help paramedics make decisions in the field,” Pine said.
Pine says it’s Second Generation Artificial Intelligence.
Pine says the project will get underway in 2018, as part of the local paramedicine program, or as a separate program. He says it’s exciting for the county to be part of this international program consisting of the United States, Canada and Hastings County.
