PHEMnet

Pre-Hospital Emergency Medicine network

A Claris FileMaker WebDirect platform built by Smart Wolf for UK air ambulance and pre-hospital teams — for clinical, incident and patient records; outcome reporting and practice auditing; and professional training.

Healthcare • Emergency Services

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Incident details — every mission captured in minutes, not hours

Screenshots are illustrative — data may be hidden or redacted.

At A Glance

Client: Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance (with wider adoption)
Sector: Pre-hospital emergency medicine
Platform: Claris FileMaker (Pro, Server, WebDirect, Go)
Primary access: FileMaker WebDirect — runs in any web browser
Used for: Clinical, incident and patient records; outcome reporting; practice audits; professional training
Reach: Multiple UK air ambulance charities & pre-hospital training programmes

Inside the system

PHEMnet is a Claris FileMaker platform delivered primarily through FileMaker WebDirect. One database, accessed from any modern browser — the same system for clinicians in the air, coordinators at base, supervisors reviewing cases after the fact and trainees logging their development.

Native FileMaker Pro is there for power users on desktop, and FileMaker Go handles iPad and iPhone use in the vehicle. Under the bonnet it's one schema, one set of business logic, one security model — wherever and however the team signs in.

Alongside the build, Smart Wolf runs a dedicated end-user support ticketing system for PHEMnet users, with committed SLAs and direct developer access on every ticket — so the clinicians, supervisors and trainees using the platform have the people who built it on call when they need them.

Project Results

100s of hours

of clinical time freed up across UK air ambulance crews

Clinical + training

used every day for operational records and professional development

Multi-operator

one platform, many UK air ambulance and pre-hospital teams

Built on FileMaker

delivered primarily through FileMaker WebDirect

The challenge

Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance crews respond to the most serious incidents — often in the most remote places. The clinical learning from every mission matters, but the charity was recording it all on paper.

Reviewing cases or spotting patterns meant sifting through hundreds of handwritten incident forms, one at a time. Analysing a specific injury type, intervention or patient group took days of clinical time away from patient care.

They needed a single source of truth that every crew could update quickly at the end of a shift, that would let medical directors review cases and audit practice across the service, and that would ultimately feed best practice back into crew training.

Pain points

Incident and patient data trapped on paper forms
Days of manual work to analyse cases or interventions
Clinical time diverted into administration
No easy way to audit practice or spot outcome patterns
Fragmented training records across trainees and supervisors

Smart Wolf's solution

Smart Wolf designed and built PHEMnet on Claris FileMaker — one platform, accessed primarily through FileMaker WebDirect, with four areas of functionality tailored to air ambulance and pre-hospital operations.

Clinical, incident & patient records

Crews log every mission straight into PHEMnet — patient condition, injuries, medical team, interventions and outcome — as a structured record that's instantly searchable.

Fast end-of-shift entry
Outcome and intervention reporting
Structured data for practice audits
Role-based access for clinicians and coordinators

Medical-device data import

Detailed clinical readings from onboard medical devices are pulled in alongside the mission record, giving clinicians the full picture in one place.

Device data attached to the right patient automatically
Removes manual retyping of vital signs
Improves the accuracy of later analysis
Feeds cleaner data into outcome reporting

Handover to ground-ambulance EPCR

Observations taken in the air are shared with the electronic patient care record used by ground ambulance crews, so a joined-up record follows the patient.

A single record follows the patient
Reduces duplicated questions on handover
Supports cross-service clinical governance
Enables shared learning between services

FileMaker WebDirect — any device, any browser

PHEMnet is delivered primarily through Claris FileMaker WebDirect, so clinicians, supervisors and trainees log in from any modern web browser — no installs, no app store.

Runs on laptops, desktops, iPads and phones
Native FileMaker Pro on desktop for power users
FileMaker Go on iOS for in-vehicle use
One database, one set of logic, everywhere

Transformational outcomes

Since PHEMnet was adopted, air ambulance and pre-hospital teams have freed up hundreds of hours by having every case, intervention and outcome instantly searchable. The visibility that came with it has already changed practice — from how crews and resources are deployed geographically, to which clinical capabilities are now standard on every mission.

Clinical records

Before

Handwritten forms filed by date

After

Structured digital records, fully searchable

Hours saved on every review

Adoption

Before

A single air ambulance charity

After

Multiple UK air ambulance charities

Multi-operator rollout

Training records

Before

Ad-hoc, paper-based logbooks

After

Structured records used by pre-hospital training programmes

Shared, comparable learning

Access

Before

Paper in filing cabinets

After

FileMaker WebDirect from any browser

Universal access

End-user support

PHEMnet isn't built and handed over — Smart Wolf runs an end-user support service around it, with a dedicated ticketing system, committed SLAs and direct developer access for every request.

End-user support ticketing

Smart Wolf runs a dedicated support ticketing system for PHEMnet users — crews, supervisors, coordinators and trainees raise tickets directly and track each one through to resolution.

Dedicated ticketing system
Raised and tracked by end users
Full history of every request and resolution
No lost emails, no missed requests

SLAs you can rely on

Every ticket is covered by a service level agreement — committed response and resolution times so critical issues get attention fast and everyday requests get steady, predictable progress.

Committed response times
Committed resolution times
Priority handling for critical issues
Reported against on a regular cadence

Direct developer access

Tickets go straight to the Smart Wolf developers who built PHEMnet — no first-line call centre, no hand-offs between teams. Users get answers from the people who know the system end-to-end.

Tickets go straight to developers
No first-line hand-off delays
Answers from the people who built it
Faster turnaround on every request

User help and guidance

Alongside ticketing, Smart Wolf supports PHEMnet users with everyday help and guidance — from quick 'how do I…' questions through to walking new crews and trainees through the system on first use.

Everyday 'how do I' questions handled
Onboarding support for new users
Guidance material and reference notes
Escalation to developers when needed

Excellent responsive team and technically very capable. Have really helped develop our system. Many thanks.

Dr Michael EddieDirector, PHEMnet

Trusted across the sector

What started as a tool for a single air ambulance charity has grown into a multi-organisation platform — adopted by other UK air ambulance operators, and separately by pre-hospital training programmes for doctors developing their emergency-medicine skills.

Each organisation logs in to its own scope of data, but it's all the same Claris FileMaker build, the same FileMaker WebDirect front door, and the same Smart Wolf team behind it.

Used operationally every day

Air ambulance and pre-hospital teams use PHEMnet for live clinical, incident and patient records.

Outcome reporting & practice audits

The same structured data powers outcome reporting and the regular auditing of clinical practice.

Used in pre-hospital training

Adopted by pre-hospital training programmes for doctors developing their emergency-medicine skills.

Built with

PHEMnet is a 100% Claris FileMaker build — delivered primarily through FileMaker WebDirect, with native clients for users who prefer them.

Claris FileMaker Pro
Claris FileMaker Server
FileMaker WebDirect
FileMaker Go (iOS)
Role-Based Access
Encrypted Storage
Audit Logging
Custom Reporting

Thinking about a similar platform?

If you run a service that depends on capturing, reviewing and learning from operational data, a Claris FileMaker system from Smart Wolf can take you from paper — or from spreadsheets — to something your whole team can actually use.

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