A new system for dealing with medical emergencies was launched in Beijing on Thursday.

From now on, whenever a person dials 999 in the city, the whole process of providing emergency assistance and any subsequent medical treatment will be supervised by the Beijing Emergency Medical Rescue Information Platform to guarantee speed and quality of service, Wang Shan, president of the People's Hospital affiliated to the Peking University, said.

"The platform will save time and lives," he said.

The People's Hospital was involved in the development of the new system.

Using wireless technology, vital information about patients and their conditions can be shared between the dispatch center, ambulance teams and hospital staff, Wang said.

When an emergency call is received at the Beijing Red Cross Emergency Rescue Center, an ambulance is dispatched to the scene within 12 minutes, he said.

Once a patient is inside the ambulance, medics can use the new system to transmit and share medical data, such as blood pressure, pulse rate, breathing and cardio information, he said.

The system also includes video cameras, which can be used by doctors to perform diagnoses remotely and make the necessary preparations at the hospital, he said.

In this way, patients can be taken directly to the most appropriate area of the hospital, Wang said. Furthermore, with the help of GPS, ambulances will be able to find the fastest route to the hospital, he said.

Also, an illness evaluation system inside the ambulance will help paramedics take the right course of action, he said. Fifty of the 150 ambulances from the Red Cross center have been equipped with the new system, and the rest will be fitted with it next month, Wang said.

The new platform is the central part of a 13 million yuan ($1.9 million) three-year "Beijing hi-tech emergency medical rescue project" jointly launched in 2005 by the Beijing Science and Technology Committee and Beijing health bureau.

Jin Dapeng, head of the health bureau, said: "The system has passed a national expert panel appraisal."

It also benefits from the experiences of France and the United States, he said.