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A 30-second blood test on arrival at the emergency department could tell doctors whether a severe trauma patient will live or die.
Research at Middlemore Hospital has identified glucose levels in severe trauma patients - those on the cusp of living or dying - gives as good an indication of survival as the incumbent Injury Severity Score (ISS) method.
The ISS method requires scans and imaging and can take up to 48 hours to calculate.
But the glucose research, dating back to 2000, has shown those with high glucose and lactate levels have a markedly lower survival rate.
Counties Manukau District Health Board research fellow Dr Arman Kahokehr said the tests worked because the human body produced significant amounts of glucose as "a massive response to trauma".
Glucose is used throughout the body, especially in the brain. When the body suffers a severe loss of blood it produces extra glucose to compensate for that loss. Therefore, elevated glucose levels indicate how severe a patient's injuries really are.
The ability to gather such crucial information so quickly was a big step forward for emergency clinicians, Dr Kahokehr said.
When severely injured patients arrived, doctors needed every bit of data on their condition they could gather, he said.
"And someone might be in worse condition than they look. In a very busy emergency department and resuscitation room, every piece of info helps."
Decisions on whether to send patients to a ward or keep to in intensive care unit were influenced by that data, he said.
