Healthcare worldwide is constantly evolving due to changes in the fields of medication and diagnostics, but also because of the fast-moving nature of global economies which makes time a priority factor when considering treatments and diagnoses.
This continuing evolution is one of the main drivers of technological innovation in healthcare, as it leads to improved patient outcomes, increased access to the best available care, reduced costs and better efficiency in the delivery of healthcare services. It also directly impacts social healthcare initiatives and infrastructure development plans.
The recent Arab Health 2023 helped showcase innovation from around the world, and while it is difficult to choose from the hundreds of unique new products and solutions, today we showcase six of the most innovative ones we came across.
UAE becomes the first country outside North America to deploy leadless pacemakers
The UAE recently became only the third country in the world and the first outside North America to use what is known as the leadless pacemaker, a revolutionary innovation to the critical care device. Presenting the innovative device – created by the US giant Abbott - to the public at its stand at Arab Health 2023, Emirates Health Services showcased its benefits and evolution via 3D displays.
Unlike traditional pacemakers that require an incision via invasive surgery to implant a power generator near the collarbone, connecting to the heart muscle via wires, the leadless pacemaker is a miniature device inserted via catheter in the thigh vein and then implanted directly into the heart.
Advanced ventilation for emergencies in the palm of your hand
Hersill Medical Devices displayed its VITAE®40 transport and emergency ventilator at the show, which places the power of a full breathing apparatus set into a portable device you carry in your hand. The VITAE®40 is an electronic ventilator designed to provide advanced respiratory support to patients during intrahospital transfers, from ICU unit to operating rooms or to diagnostic imaging areas. It is also designed to provide service in a mobile ICU.
The device, launched just before the pandemic, became a key innovation that helped provide for on-the-spot respiratory needs in patients whether or not they were diagnosed with COVID-19. Despite being a recent innovation, it has already been deployed across parent country Spain with thousands of units in use since the pandemic. It provides high-flow oxygen therapy, CPAP, Non-Invasive Ventilation and Invasive Ventilation with performance and ventilation modes similar to those offered by ICU ventilators. It also has specific ventilation modes for CPR manoeuvres.
Virtual Reality as easy as 1, 2, 3
While many companies exhibiting offer virtual reality (VR) solutions for hospitals, clinics, diagnosticians and HCPs, a one-stop ‘do it yourself’ VR system that can be customised by use case is definitely a game changer. VRpatientsTM is a powerful no-code medica education sim-builder that empowers specialists to build any simulation to meet medical education needs. The system allows the user to create life-like clinical experiences that meet all nursing accreditation education standards, a diversity of avatars that are physiologically responsive and medically accurate and features different scenarios that can be deployed via a desktop computer or a mobile phone.
The objective of the VRpatients offering is to help with faster training of practitioners, reduce errors, and engage in unique, differing daily scenarios to keep teams at the top of their game. The plug-and-play options that are similar to using popular slide show creators and drag-and-drop design tools make it easier and faster to use than having to get unique designs and scenarios built by agencies that can cost multiple thousands of dollars. Unlike civilian game designers who build single-use simulations for tens of thousands of dollars, the VRpatients’ EMS educator option allows you to design your sims, deploy them remotely and measure competencies related to local protocols and national guidelines.
Telemedicine in HD
Poland’s medVC showcased their unique telemedicine education solutions and diagnostic training solutions. Their key offering to the industry is high definition (HD) connectivity combined with the multi-picture-in-picture feature, which unlike other solutions in the market allows HCPs and healthcare trainers to display live streams of multiple surgical procedures as well as multiple recorded sessions at the highest possible resolution. Deployment is possible on a range of devices, including medVC’s proprietary medical carts that feature full HD screens and PTZ camera, video inputs for AV devices in the operating theatre (endoscopes, microscopes, Da Vinci robots, etc), medical touch screen monitor and a wireless headset, microphone and speaker; mobile phones, video portals online, a standalone terminal that can be used in medical universities as well as HCP offices.
The solution offers two transmission modes, interactive dialogue and streaming-only. This allows for it to be deployed at conferences that offer live surgery sessions, interactive remote consultations by doctors away from hospitals as they can view a patient’s entire anatomy and disease issue in HD, battlefield deployment for use under difficult combat conditions (the system is compatible with NATO standards) and remote surgeries supervision for difficult to access geographic areas.
Rehabilitation beyond the status quo
Patients who have suffered from strokes or require extensive physical therapy and rehabilitation usually find themselves walking the same path, literally, as many around the world: a long journey of minute, slow steps on flat surfaced gait platforms.
However, help is at hand. DPE Medical Ltd with Leader Healthcare displayed its innovative new improvement on rehabilitation platforms with the DST8000 systems, featuring tailor-made models targeting all three essential functions for a patient’s mobility: walking, climbing stairs and negotiating slopes. With a click of a button, the flat platform converts into a slope or stairs with adjustable heights and incline degrees, adjustable to the current and evolving abilities of patients.
The built-in monitoring systems allow doctors to diagnose the source of impairment and create an accurate treatment plan, as well as keep track of the patient’s progress without ever leaving the clinic. One single device saves cost, space and time by replacing multiple units of fixed stair devices, slopes, parallel bars and other gait analysis solutions.
Healthcare in the clouds
Faster access to data, universally deployable across devices and consoles, instant analytics for quicker diagnoses, all of this is the result of a boom in healthcare-based cloud computing. Arab Health saw many companies showcase a variety of cloud solutions, with a few pushing the envelope of innovation with evolving tried and tested hardware to take advantage of this.
seca, the medical measuring giant in business since 1840, displayed its new generation of body composition analysis devices which go beyond commercial use commonly seen in nutrition and fitness clinics to more medical specialisations, including portable and home-based devices. Unlike traditional measurement devices of this nature, the seca innovation allows for more than just height, weight and BMI data capture but also uses bio-impedance analysis to not just measure body components but also to calculate them using precision formulas. All the data is then uploaded into the cloud solution and deployed with analytics and insight to diagnosticians and the patient, easily accessible at any time, saving time, money and travel.
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This article appears in the Daily Dose 2023. Read the full issue online today.
