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NRMA Careflight & SCHILLER Australia, saving lives together
Posted in Company Blog by Mat Packer.
The world’s most lightweight emergency patient monitoring system is now aboard the planes and helicopters of NRMA Careflight to better help its staff to save lives.
NRMA Careflight has taken delivery of five of SCHILLER’s mobile ARGUS PRO Lifecare units. Three will be used by Careflight International medical retrieval teams operating across the world from bases in Sydney, Darwin and Perth. Two others are being used on board the helicopters participating in Careflight’s HIRT trial.
SCHILLER Australia managing director Harry Packer said the Argus PRO Life Care unit combines an intensive care patient monitor, defibrillator and transcutaneous pacemaker. It weighs just 2.1kg making it highly portable.
“This unique, lightweight yet powerful device opens up many new horizons in emergency care as well as inter-hospital or in-house patient transfers ,” Mr Packer said.
The unit has already been put to the test by Careflight International on a rescue mission last month involving a man who sustained severe head trauma in Bali.
Careflight’s chief medical officer Dr Alan Garner said there is nothing on the market that compares with it for size, weight and capability.
Dr Garner said savings in weight and size are critical in medical emergencies, particularly for pre-hospital trauma.
“The Schiller Argus Pro Lifecare unit replaces a defibrillator, Capnograph and Propack monitor, saving us valuable space and around 6.5kg,” Dr Garner said.
“Added features such as the alarm functions, 12 lead ECG, Masimo Pulse Oximetry and hot swappable batteries means no other unit gets anywhere near it,” he said.
He said he had received very good feedback from Austrian counterparts who had been using the unit extensively.
Mr Packer said that the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service and Hawkes Bay Rescue Service in New Zealand and Careflight Queensland had also expressed interest in the system.
NRMA CareFlight, a registered charity, is conducting the world’s first randomised clinical trial (HIRT) to evaluate the benefits of rapid response physician care to head injury patients. CareFlight International, the commercial branch of the organisation, provides medical retrieval services anywhere in the world.
SCHILLER Australia supplies a wide range medical equipment including electrocardiographs, long-term ECG and blood pressure recorders, spirometers, medical IT solutions, patient monitors and external defibrillators. It has offices in Newcastle, NSW and Melbourne, Victoria.
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