Vom Kartenlesen zur GPS-Navigation

This overview in the context of social medicine describes the historical development of emergency caller and the approach after an emergency call has been made in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) with special consideration of current technical advances. In the FRG the police, fire department and rescue service are among the so-called authorities and organizations with security tasks (BOS). In the rescue service, rescue vehicles such as emergency vehicles (NEF), emergency ambulance with emergency physician (NAW), ambulances (RTW), rescue helicopters (RTH) or in the fire department, for example, the emergency fire fighting vehicle (HLF), are alerted via a rescue control center and must find their way to the scene of an emergency in the shortest possible time using special rights of way. Technical support, in particular navigation with a global positioning system (GPS), is also used in an attempt to meet these requirements.