Research on the Decision-Making Process by Communication Specialist (CS) in the Navigation Management of Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS)

The ambulance service, the rapidity and the usefulness of the HEMS are rated highly, and it is also effective in reducing regional medical service differences which have occurred in recent years. The captain flies without using visual assistance to keep some distance between the helicopter and clouds or obstacles. Under the present conditions, the CS and the captain of HEMS contact each other and select the safest flight path. With the increase in future requests, conducting safe and effective navigation is a challenge of the CS. However, the CS is sent from an airline in rotation so it is difficult to say that all CSs conduct their duties with profound knowledge and experience about the detailed weather and land forms in the navigation area. In addition, a reasonable amount of time is needed to standardize their knowledge and experience. Consequently in our research, we focused on the understanding and assessment of the situation and the process of the decision-making and then analyzed them. We also interviewed the CS directly, and proposed to develop a system which can make up for the differences in the knowledge and experience of individual CSs.