Bringing Specialists Into the Cabin: How Telemedicine Is Changing HEMS Communication, Decision-Making and Transport Coordination

Published: October 20, 2026  |  Category: Industry

In air medical transport, the costliest, most irreversible loss of information rarely happens in the air. It happens in the seams of the chain — between the scene and the dispatch center, between the sending hospital and the receiving hospital, between the ground crew and the flight crew — where clinical information passed by radio report and a chain of phone calls loses something at every handoff. Per a Vertical Mag feature of September 30, 2026 (by Gerrard Cowan), telemedicine is systematically transforming helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) and pre-hospital care: emergency physicians can appear at the scene almost instantly, ECGs and images reach the receiving team before arrival, and remote communities can see "treat in place" as an alternative to always transporting long distances. This article unpacks the feature: how the two platform providers Avel eCare and Pulsara approach the problem, the technical details, the road ahead, and what it means for the profession of air medical coordination and dispatch.

1. The Story: An Industry Feature That Maps Telemedicine in HEMS

The feature, titled "How telemedicine is transforming HEMS and pre-hospital care," was published by Vertical Mag on September 30, 2026, and builds on interviews with two executives from representative companies — Becky VandeKieft, vice president and general manager of EMS at Avel eCare, and Corey Ricketson, senior vice president at Pulsara. Its core argument is direct: telemedicine offers a range of technologies supporting pre-hospital care for HEMS operators, enhancing access to emergency care in remote communities while improving communication with receiving hospitals — giving crews instant access to specialists, improving communication, accelerating decision-making, and supporting better patient outcomes. The experts point to a variety of innovations in the space and to significant growth potential in the coming years.

2. Avel eCare: Bringing the Emergency Physician to the Scene, Response Time in Seconds

As the feature describes, Avel eCare provides a range of virtual care technologies and services for medical professionals, including HEMS operators. Its system uses secure, high-definition video and audio equipment installed in ambulances and emergency platforms to support HEMS teams during intercepts, as well as EMS agencies, emergency departments and receiving facilities. VandeKieft says HEMS operators use Avel Emergency telemedicine technology to enhance clinical decision-making on the ground. The goal is seamless communication: coordinating with dispatch centers to initiate air or ground transport when appropriate, delivering advanced patient reports to receiving hospitals, and assisting with the early activation of specialist response teams for stroke, STEMI, trauma and other emergencies. The feature quotes VandeKieft: the technology "helps improve care coordination, enhance clinical readiness, and support timely, informed decision-making for patients requiring urgent or emergent care." She notes that telemedicine enables response times measured in seconds rather than minutes — emergency physicians and clinical teams appear on screen almost immediately after activation — supporting earlier clinical assessment, faster activation of HEMS or EMS resources, timely requests for advanced life support (ALS) intercepts, and more efficient coordination of patient transport "when every minute matters".

3. Pulsara: One Dedicated Patient Channel Replacing Phone Calls and Radio Reports

Pulsara takes a different technical route: a telehealth app designed to replace multiple phone calls, radio reports and other forms of communication with a single, unified channel dedicated to each patient. It works across smartphones and tablets (iOS and Android), enabling geographically dispersed care teams to interact in real time through that per-patient channel. Ricketson says HEMS crews can connect with specialists and medical control through secure video; for complex interfacility patients, "this adds an additional tool to the toolbox to help ensure they receive the right care." App-based tools like Pulsara can be used instead of, or in addition to, "the age-old radio report": crews can transmit ECG data, send images of injuries, and view clinical findings before arriving to pick up a patient, helping providers formulate a treatment plan. A secure video call between the sending hospital, transfer center, and specialists in areas such as neonatology or neurology is a valuable option in certain situations — "although flight crews are highly trained and qualified, complex patients can benefit from an extra set of eyes, and secure video can paint a clearer picture than a phone call." Pulsara also interfaces with systems such as cardiac monitors to transmit EKGs and other images, giving receiving teams a more complete clinical picture: "Being able to send images of lab values, chest X-rays, injuries, vent settings, etc., is a definite upgrade from just a verbal radio report," and the data can integrate with electronic patient care reports (ePCR) and hospital electronic health records (EHRs). The feature highlights its value for handoffs in the transport chain: a ground ambulance may initiate a Pulsara channel before delivering a patient to a primary care facility for initial stabilization; a transfer request can then be initiated on the same channel, a video consult arranged to determine acceptance and the treatment plan; flight crews can be added "to see what they are responding to so they can better prepare to receive the patient"; and the flight crew can alert the tertiary care facility with an updated report — "This results in tertiary care seeing the entire picture, which results in better patient safety."

4. New Possibilities for Remote Communities, and the Technical Road Ahead

The feature emphasizes the rural and remote dimension: sending hospitals in these settings "do not have access to the same level of specialty care as the urban environments and are always looking to get their patients to comprehensive care faster and easier." Pre-hospital HEMS crews can connect with specialists for consultations even in remote areas; as Ricketson notes, "this may not always result in transporting long distances but could rather result in more treat-in-place and secure follow-up visits". VandeKieft echoes that through real-time collaboration, frontline clinicians and EMS providers receive expert guidance for complex presentations, critical decision-making and stabilization prior to transport. On the technical side, the feature surfaces several details worth noting: connectivity reliability is one of the primary challenges of pre-hospital telemedicine (patients in motion, remote locations with variable cellular coverage), and Avel Emergency/EMS addresses it with dual-SIM router technology providing automatic failover between cellular networks, minimizing interruptions during critical patient encounters. The company is also evaluating satellite connectivity to extend coverage in underserved areas, advancing audio technology for noisy pre-hospital environments, expanding system integrations — and is open to extending connectivity and support beyond the ground environment into flight operations. Onboard, Ricketson notes that flight crews were historically discouraged from using mobile devices in flight, but that has changed with advances in avionics: most aircraft are now equipped with 5G-compatible radar altimeters and onboard Wi-Fi. Live video in flight remains challenging, but video communication on scene is practical and appropriate; to minimize distraction during critical phases of flight, Pulsara can offer asynchronous options for multimedia communications. Looking ahead, AI is seen as an important direction: ambient listening that turns spoken words into usable data — for example, time-stamping vital signs as a provider speaks and integrating them with electronic patient care reporting systems — and predictive modeling that could determine where patients should be routed for transfer or how to "load balance" patients in a mass-casualty event. VandeKieft stresses that these innovations are not intended to replace existing patient care; the aim is to "come alongside local providers as an extension of their team, offering additional expertise, clinical support, and resources when needed."

5. Three Reference Points for China

1) The next stage of emergency response competition may be on the ground communication chain. China's low-altitude medical rescue buildout tends to focus on aircraft, landing sites and medical team deployment; this feature is a reminder that response efficiency equally depends on how pre-hospital information flows. For organizations and families choosing an air medical provider, assessment should look beyond aircraft type and clinical accreditations to whether the information chain is closed — whether pre-hospital assessment reaches the receiving hospital complete before transport, whether there is access to remote consultation for complex cases, and whether a specific person owns each handoff. 2) The "second set of eyes" mechanism is worth borrowing. The feature's example of neonatology and neurology specialists joining transport decisions by secure video is, at its core, bringing scarce specialist resources into the mobile emergency unit; China's specialist resources are concentrated in central cities, and extending that capability to remote regions and in-transit care through remote consultation is a direction pre-hospital systems can explore — such deployments should be led and operated by qualified medical institutions. 3) Coordination and dispatch is the pipeline through which telemedicine reaches the patient. However advanced the video equipment, it only works if someone puts the patient's information into the channel, brings the receiving hospital onto the screen, and carries the consult's conclusions into the transport plan — those connective tasks are exactly where coordination and dispatch service providers sit. Technology solves "whether we can see"; coordination solves "by whom, when, and how we see." Both are indispensable.

Bringing specialists into the cabin is not about doctors flying — it is about professional judgment arriving ahead of the aircraft. Information first, then people move: the air medical communication chain is being rewritten by telemedicine. This site will continue to follow.

Disclaimer: The facts in this article are drawn from the feature "How telemedicine is transforming HEMS and pre-hospital care" published by Vertical Mag (verticalmag.com) on September 30, 2026 (by Gerrard Cowan; accessed and verified October 20, 2026). The descriptions of Avel eCare (as stated by Becky VandeKieft) and Pulsara (as stated by Corey Ricketson), including product functions, titles and quoted statements, the characterization of telemedicine response times "measured in seconds rather than minutes," dual-SIM router failover, 5G-compatible radar altimeters and onboard Wi-Fi, and AI ambient listening and predictive modeling are all content of that feature; the statement that "most aircraft are now equipped with 5G-compatible radar altimeters and onboard Wi-Fi" is the interviewee's view. The industry interpretation, reference points for China and discussion of the value of coordination are general analysis and do not constitute legal, medical or operational-licensing advice. Telemedicine services are provided by qualified medical institutions and third-party platforms. BOOZOUN is an aviation medical coordination and dispatch service provider; it is neither a carrier nor a medical institution — flight medical teams are dispatched by partner medical institutions. In a medical emergency, dial your local emergency number immediately.