An application of signal detection theory to EMS decision making

The need for measures of decision making performance in emergency medical service (EMS) systems is now widely recognized. The development of process measures such as Ambulance Sensitivity and Specificity Indices leads naturally to the treatment of the decision process as the detection of a signal (need) in a background of noise (no need). The Theory of Signal Detection is described as an analogous decision making metric and applied to data from previous EMS studies. It is found to give at least a qualitative interpretation of the data. The advantages and dangers of this approach are outlined, with the conclusion that this theory represents a potentially fruitful line of research into EMS decisions.