Korean J Aerosp Environ Med.  2017 Aug;27(2):21-32.

Inflight Doctor Call and Safety of the Patient

• Lim SY
• Park SJ
• Jeon Y
• Cho HK
• Lim J

Abstract

Inflight medical issues and emergencies are increasing, many airlines have prepared various medical resources such as medical kits, portable oxygen, automated external defibrillator, well-trained flight attendants and telemedicine system between air and ground for support inflight medical care. Despite these efforts, the engagement of physician passengers is essential to provide a good care. According to the survey for members of the Korea Aerospace Medical Association and the Korean Academy of Family Medicine in 2016 year, 274 (61.6%) of the 445 respondents answered that they would accept an in-flight doctor call and 171 (38.4%) did not intend to participate. 96 (21.6%) experienced in-flight doctor calls, of which 73 (76.0%) actually participated in. Of the 23 doctors who did not participate in the on-board emergency, 13 (56.5%) said they did not because of other doctors, and 6 (26.1%) said that they were concerned about lawsuits. 313 (70.3%) of the respondents said that the related law does not help induce participation in the in-flight medical emergency. In the multivariate analysis, the higher the perception of the law, the lower the participation rate (P for trend ＜0.05). The odds ratios of little, well and very well awareness of law groups were 0.57, 0.36, and 0.17, respectively compared to the no-awareness groups. Only 54 (12.1%) of the doctors were trained on how to deal with in-flight emergency situations, and the remaining 391 (87.9%) were not educated. This study has revealed that the fear of legal issues was a major reason for physician passengers’ reluctance to offer assistance during inflight medical situation. Furthermore, the current law on in-flight medical emergencies has allowed the physician to step back from this situation. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the system to reduce the legal burden of physicians treating in-flight emergency patients and to respond to doctor calls more voluntarily in the sense of duty. Physician passenger has a critical role in case of inflight medical events. But most physicians were not educated how to deal with the inflight medical events when they heard a doctor call. Therefore, the education regarding the not only medico-legal issues of the inflight medical events, but also the ethical duties of doctors in emergencies and suggested response to inflight medical emergencies are required.

Keyword

Inflight doctor call; Inflight medical emergency; Inflight medical care; Physician passengers; Telemedicine