Last week, Raytheon announced a breakthrough in the way patient data is shared between first responders and hospital personnel. Hospitals in Long Beach, California will use a new solution meant to improve the availability of patient information by providing selected patient data to all involved parties during an emergency.

“Raytheon has a long history of providing California first responders with open-standard communications solutions to improve efficiency and enhance community safety,” William Iannacci, director of Civil Communications Solutions for Raytheon, said in a statement.

The system, referred to as EPTS, uses barcode and radio frequency identification tags (RFID) to track the patient’s location, medical status and personal information. The information is transferred to a Raytheon-hosted, Web-enabled database, providing patient information from triage and transport through treatment and release.

According to the company, a patient’s status can be tracked to improve efficiency and ensure information accuracy through data interoperability tools and services provided by DropFire, Inc. Data can be collected until the patient is admitted, released, or transferred to another hospital.

“Applying our systems integration expertise with our proven technology enables the California public safety community to more effectively share critical information,” Mr. Iannacci said.