Using mesh networking to support family reunification and Amateur Radio medical communications at the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon

1. Mesh Goes to the Marathon
Erik Westgard, NY9D
2/8/20 ewestgard@att.net
Volunteer Medical Communications Coordinator,
Medtronic Twin Cites Marathon
Red White and Boom Half Marathon
http://www.14567.org

2. The Most Beautiful Urban Marathon in
America®
12,000 Marathon starters, 10,000 Ten Mile starters, 200,000 spectators
Biggest Marathons in the U.S.
1. TCS New York City Marathon
49,365 finishers in 2015
#1 in the world in 2014
2. Bank of America Chicago Marathon
37,395 finishers in 2015
#2 in the world in 2014
3. Boston Marathon
26,612 finishers in 2015
#6 in the world in 2014
4. Marine Corps Marathon
23,184 finishers in 2015
#12 in the world in 2014.
5. Skechers Performance Los Angeles Marathon
21,940 finishers in 2015
#10 in the world in 2014.
6. Honolulu Marathon
21,551 finishers in 2015
#9 in the world in 2014
7. Walt Disney World Marathon
19,074 finishers in 2015
#13 in the world in 2014
8. GORE-TEX Philadelphia Marathon
9,161 finishers in 2015
9. Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon
8,543 finishers in 2015
10. Chevron Houston Marathon
7,145 finishers in 2015
http://www.runkarlarun.com/2016/01/21/how-to-run-
americas-20-biggest-marathons-in-2016/ Accessed
5/7/18

3. Medical Personnel on the Course
The marathon has one of the best medical teams in the industry and
is led by Medical Director, Dr. Bill Roberts. On average, one to three
percent of every 1,000 entrants will seek medical assistance along
the course or at the finish line. With that in mind, 300 medical
personnel are positioned along the course and at the finish line. All
medical personnel can be identified by their orange vests and all are
trained to assist in medical care. A medical team will be assigned to
each aid station along the course. There are also medical volunteers
stationed at many of the mile and half-mile marks of the race course.
Communications personnel in yellow shirts are paired with
the medical volunteers to provide access to mobile medical
teams and ambulance services. Seriously injured or ill runners
will be transported to the nearest hospital from any of the Medical
Aid Stations on the course, and well runners who drop out of the
race will be taken to the finish area. Medical volunteers will have first
aid supplies at every medical location.
What is our Job?
https://www.tcmevents.org/events/medtronic_twin_cities_marathon_w
eekend/marathon/medical_information/
Accessed 8/13/2013

4. Simplified TCM Event Communication Structure 2019
Race Director
(ROC)
Incident
Commander*
Race Operations
Medical
Director
Medical EMS
Course Marshals
Other race officials
Public safety agencies
Race Operations Center
Medical Volunteers
Amateur
Radio
Medical Command Center
EMS,
Fire
Etc.
Normal
Reporting
In a declared emergency
the Incident Commander
takes over
Under normal operations, the Race Operations Center and Medical Command Center provide radio
channels and coordination to support the event. In a declared emergency, all resources are available to the
Incident Commander * St Paul Fire/EMS Deputy Chief – Matt Simpson usually
Best practice:
An Incident
Action Plan
(IAP) is on file
The marathon has a 10 channel
rented radio system and a few hundred
radios
Four Amateur radio repeaters and
cell phone are the backups
ARMER radio connections are via
Medical Command
Erik Westgard, TCM Med Comms 9/27/18

5. Hams as third backup system
SAG wagon dispatching
Injured runner tracking- packet
Vehicle position reporting (APRS(r))
Family Medical Database
Med Tent Admit/Discharge
MTCM Medical Team Amateur Radio Project Evolution
1985 1995 2005 2015
Irunsafe
Tablets
Ham dispatchers
Hospital tracking >
NIMS/ICS
www.14567.org 9/7/2019
Dstar® and 802.11 >
Mesh >
Video

6. Aid
Stations
Amateur
Radio
Assets
Net1
Data
+
22 Water
Stops/
100 Yellow
Shirts
5 + 4 voice
5+1 D-Star
Repeaters
911 service
Rented UHF Radios
5G Mesh backbone
Net Controls- distributed
D-Star/Mesh data entry/query
On-Course Med Director
RaceSafe
Finish Line EMS Dispatch
Database
Net 4 (course inter-tie)
Medical Ch.1 Control
Medical Director
Family Medical
Info Tent
Bus Drop-off
iPads
IP phones
TCM Medical Communications 2019
Race Weekend General Principles:
Yellow shirts (hams) backstop 911 /ARMER medical communications - report and notify using independent systems*
Injured /dropped out runner location data flows to the server
Course tactical operations are autonomous (ICS)
“Runner Down” protocol is always 911
* Best practice- metro wide lights out scaled MCI simulation 200-300+ actual patients
Finish Line
802.11a/n protocol
2-3 D-Star Uplinks
802.11a/OLSR mesh link (Finish line to St Paul EOC)
Net2 Net3 Medical Tent Family Medical
Race
Operations
Center
Internet
RaceSafe
Finish Data
Net 1: (Miles 1-18) Minneapolis (Maple Grove Fire)
Net 2: (Miles 18-22) Hennepin County ICC Truck (ARMER)
Net 3: (Miles 23-26) St. Paul Dispatch Center (911)
Net 4: Finish

7. 2016+ New Interagency – Race Operations Center

8. News for 2010- iPads for check
in – hospital tent
New for 2011 – IP Phones
New for 2012- Mobile devices
New for 2015- Mesh
Family Medical Information

9. Our Open SourceTracking Software: Trivnetdb
Missing /dropped out/ill runner
web runner lookup and update
Runner location only- non
HIPAA
Can be used for family
reunification, vaccine stations

10. Recent requests- TCM
• Drive the adoption of RaceSafe
– A cloud/mobile based medical records system
– Dashboard /map
– Volunteer management – assignment to stations
• Missing persons
– Family reunification
– Family medical tent
• Live video over mesh - start line to finish line (10 miles)
• Asset location tracking /live map
• Information booth staffing

11. RaceSafe Commercial Software
irunsafe.com
trivnetdb in
the TCM
data trailer
API
Amateur Family Medical
Information Tent agents (6-8)
Either a single
integrated
view or windows to both/all apps
TCM Race
Timing Web
MDs
Medical
admissions
Command centers
Query + updates
Events +
Timestamps
Part 97 Requirements:
Non HIPAA event view,
API feed to trivnetdb
EMR
PHR
data
Mobile
devices

12. Ubiquiti Inventory
4X
8X
14X
The older units support the OpenWRT firmware

13. Network Architecture - 2018
Hub
Hub
Hub
Hub
Dish-Dish
5Ghz
Native Ubiquiti
R
R
R
Omnidirectional mesh nodes seem to have a range of at least a mile or two
Dish to dish links use the native software and are rated for line of sight
10 miles
5 miles
1.5 miles – mesh
Dish-Dish
5Ghz
Native Ubiquiti
Mesh
Routers connect dish links
to the mesh
Mesh
R
Mesh omni antenna 5Ghz
Remote sites can also run (mesh) dish to
omni using mesh software
WAN addresses (mesh)
LAN addresses (local PCs etc))
The network routers can “see” all the remote LAN subnets

14. Twin Cities Mesh Network 7/19
New 5Ghz Mesh High Speed All Hazard Network
Supports live HD video, voice and family reunification
Encryption is supported for medical records, patient tracking as needed in disasters
Hennepin County command vehicles, Regions Hospital, St Paul Fire are already operational

15. The St Paul End of the Dish Link
Note Minneapolis in the distance- 9 miles

16. HC Command Truck Mesh Upgrades
• We have had excellent results for ten years borrowing a
communications vehicle (ICC) and volunteer team
from the Hennepin County Sherriff. The primary
mission is missing runner tracking and family
reunification. They run one of the four injured runner
tracking radio nets. The vehicle is the interface
between the medical volunteers (mostly Amateur
Radio) and Marathon rented radio system and the
Statewide ARMER radio network.
• At the recent Red White and Boom Half Marathon
(7/4/19) the volunteer team was directed by Hennepin
Healthcare to coordinate EMS dispatch for the event.
We also tested a new mesh live video system that can
cover downtown Minneapolis or St Paul, using new
rooftop antennas.
• We just added mesh antennas and radios to a second
Hennepin Country vehicle (ICP), for similar role

17. Project List 02/20
• Add more mesh stations – Metro counties (Bloomington),
Hennepin Healthcare, Dakota County
• Packet link upgrade- Rush City (Duluth) + Rochester
• FM/(Fusion -DARC) Repeaters St Paul, Minneapolis
• One more D-Star repeater
• More county command trucks on Mesh
• New home for MAPLE packet node
• New generator/tower trailer commissioning
• DMR repeater coverage - Duluth
• New served agencies/events (Klondike /Loppet)
• Hospital Compact support

18. New Trailer 2/20 – 6KW Diesel /30’ Tower